しずいちゃん

Cost to pesonalized iPS cells and HLA haplotype homo donors.

iPS cells are immortal and can be generated form patients' cells. So many types of tissues and cells can be generated from them and the poteitial looked unlimited. However, now it is thought that generation of iPS cells from each patient and preparation for safe transplantation cost several hundred thousand dollars. If we can use single iPS clone for many people, the cost will be reduced. But, we will have a rejection problem of HLA mismatch.

There was a small discovery in HLA types of our DPC bank. There were 2 donors who showed only 3 HLA loci, while generally we have 6. Soon, we realized that these donors have 2 identical HLA haplotypes (set of three HLAs) succeeded from both father and mother. They are called HLA haplotype homo donors. We can find HLA haplotype homo donors in apploximately 1% of the Japanese population.

Shortly, we started to think that usage of these haplotype donors will be a key to realize cost-effective regenerative medicines.