A team from Japan’s Riken Institute announced on March 28 that it had already carried out a surgical procedure transplanting retinal cells generated from a donor’s induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the eye of a patient with failing eyesight. This is world’s first transplant of donor cells generated from iPS cells.
The treatment was carried out at the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, and entailed injecting liquid containing iPS retinal cells into the eye of a man in his 60s suffering from exudative age-related macular degeneration, which can cause retinal problems and perhaps even lead to blindness. The procedure took approximately one hour.
A primary objective of the procedure was to confirm the safety of the treatment. Transplanting donor cells raises concerns of rejection, but in this case the iPS cells were selected from iPS cells with a low risk of rejection, created by a team at Kyoto University led by Shinya Yamanaka. These immunological type cells, which are kept in frozen storage, not only have a low risk of rejection by the host; they can also be cultivated after thawing and continue to multiply almost indefinitely.
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙攝
According to Riken Institute project leader Masayo Takahashi, the research team will monitor the transplanted cells to see whether they mutate, and check whether the patient maintains his vision, predicting they will only know whether or not the transplant was successful in two or three years’ time.
The benefits of this procedure, compared to using iPS cells deriving from the patient’s own body, include shorter preparation times and lower costs. If the transplant turns out to be a success it will be hugely beneficial, with iPS cell therapy costs per person potentially falling from 100 million Japanese yen to a tenth of that amount.
(CNA, translated by Paul Cooper)
Photo: GNU Free Documentation License
照片：GNU自由文檔許可證
日本理化學研究所團隊三月二十八日宣布，已完成一項將捐贈人的誘導性多功能幹細胞（iPS細胞）所製作的視網膜細胞移植至眼疾患者眼部的手術，這是利用iPS細胞所製作細胞進行他體移植手術的全球首例。
這項手術是在神戶市立醫療中心中央市民醫院完成，進行方式為將含有以iPS細胞製作的視網膜細胞的溶液注射入一名罹患滲出型老年性黃斑部退化的六十多歲男性的眼部，該病症使視網膜出現障礙，甚至可能導致失明。手術歷時約一小時。
手術的首要目標是確認安全性。細胞他體移植手術有發生排斥反應的疑慮，但此次使用的iPS細胞是不易引發排斥反應的特殊iPS細胞，為京都大學山中伸彌教授團隊所製作；這種特殊免疫型iPS細胞可經冷凍保存，不易引發排斥反應，且在解凍後進行培養，幾乎可無限增殖。
理化學研究所的計畫主持人高橋政代表示，研究團隊將檢驗移植後細胞是否變成腫瘤，觀察視力能否維持，預計將在二、三年後發佈移植是否成功等結果。
這項手術相較於使用患者本身iPS細胞的自體移植，優點是準備時間短、費用也較低。如果移植成功，原需每人約一億日圓的iPS細胞治療成本，可望降至十分之一左右。
（中央社）
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