Generation and characterization of integration-free induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with autoimmune disease.

A strategy for efficiently generating ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells could lead to patient-specific treatments for various autoimmune disorders. Diseases like lupus could potentially be treated by regenerative therapies that, for example, use stem cells to replace defective immune cells. These must be obtained from a matching donor to avoid rejection, but researchers led by Yee Sook Cho of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology have identified an alternative approach. After collecting skin cells from patients with autoimmune diseases, they introduced DNA containing genes that reprogrammed those cells into a ‘pluripotent‘ stem cell state. Other reprogramming methods can cause genetic damage to the target cells, but here the cells shed the foreign DNA after reprogramming was complete. The cells behaved like normal stem cells, making them a potentially superior therapeutic tool for autoimmune diseases.