In this method, two genes that encode surface molecules that are required for the immune system to recognise the cells as “foreign” are removed. A gene is also added so the cells make a molecule called CD47, which normally tells the immune system not to attack.
The researchers first tested a “pluripotent” version of the cells – meaning they have the potential to be turned into multiple different tissues and organs – that was created from a rhesus macaque’s cells and then inserted into the leg muscles of four other rhesus macaques. The cells survived with no signs of immune attack for up to four months, at which point the monkeys were euthanised. In contrast, cells that were inserted that hadn’t had the genetic changes were destroyed by the monkeys’ immune systems within three weeks.
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