Therapies that block part of the immune response in diabetic mice can prevent rejection of transplanted cells made from stem cells.

Some people with severe type 1 diabetes receive transplants of insulin-producing cells from healthy donors, but must take drugs that suppress much of the immune response, making them susceptible to cancer and infection. Jeffrey Bluestone at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues suppressed immune responses in a more targeted way by treating diabetic mice with molecules that block T-cell stimulation. This prevented the immune system from rejecting transplanted pancreatic cells made from human embryonic stem cells, allowing the transplants to develop into insulin-secreting cells and reversing diabetes.

Targeting specific groups of immune cells could help to avoid the side effects associated with current immune-suppressing drugs, the authors say.

Cell Stem Cell http://doi.org/xwg (2014)