WIKIMEDIA, NISSIM BENVENISTYResearchers have coaxed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from mice to become several different cell lines and transplanted those cells into genetically identical mice without triggering a strong immune response.

The study, published this week (January 24) in Cell Stem Cell, comes hot on the heels of similar findings reported earlier this month, strengthening the case that cells generated from iPSCs could eventually be used for cell replacement therapy to treat various human diseases.

Because iPSCs can be derived from a patient’s own tissues, researchers believed that transplantation into that patient should not provoke an immune response. But in 2011, Yang Xu’s team at the University of California, Sand Diego, called such assumptions into question when they provided evidence that iPSCs derived from mice were attacked and rejected by the immune system when implanted into genetically identical mice.

This prompted Ashleigh Boyd and colleagues at...