Human Immune Cells Produced in Dish For First Time

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Researchers from Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia have produced the world's first human immune cells in a dish. One day the advance could lead to a patient's own skin cells being used to produce new cells for cancer immunotherapy or to test autoimmune disease interventions.

The group, led by Ed Stanley and Andrew Elefanty from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said the work has added definitive evidence about how the body's earliest immune cells are formed. These lymphocytes are produced by cells that form the embryo's first organs rather than the blood-producing stem cells that sit inside the body's bone marrow.

The research combined two powerful laboratory techniques, genetic engineering and a novel way of growing stem cells, to make the breakthrough, which has been published in Nature Cell Biology.

First, the team engineered pluripotent stem cells to glow green when a specific protein marker of early immune cells, RAG1, was switched on. RAG1 is responsible for creating the immune response to infections and vaccines.

Next, the team isolated the glowing green RAG1-positive cells and showed that they could also form multiple immune cell types, including cells required for shaping the development of the whole immune system.

"We think these early cells might be important for the correct maturation of the thymus, the organ that acts as a nursery for T-cells" said Stanley. "These RAG1 cells are like the painters and decorators who set up that nursery, making it a safe and cosy environment for later-born immune cells," he said.

"Although a clinical application is likely still years away, we can use this new knowledge to test ideas about how diseases like childhood leukemia and type 1 diabetes develop. Understanding more about the steps these cells go through, and how we can more efficiently nudge them down a desired pathway, is going to be crucial to that process," said Elefanty. 

Republished courtesy of Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Photo: The bodies earliest immune cells were engineered to glow green when they arose from stem cells. These green cells can be seen migrating along blood vessels. Later, they populate the thymus- the so-called T-cell nursery. Credit: Murdoch Children's Research Institute


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