NOVEL GENETIC APPROACHES TO REDUCE OR INHIBIT TUMORGENICITY OF HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND DERIVATIVES FOLLOWING TRANSPLANTATION

Abstract

Self-renewable embryonic stem cells (ESCs), derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, can propagate indefinitely in culture while maintaining their normal karyotypes and pluripotency to differentiate into all cell types. Therefore, ESCs may provide an unlimited supply of even specialized cells such as brain and heart cells for transplantation and cell-based therapies that are otherwise limited by donor availability. However, this promising application is hampered by concerns that ESCs or their multipotent derivatives also possess the potential to form malignant tumors after transplantation in vivo. The present invention provides for a novel genetic method to arrest undesirable cell division (of ESCs and other unwanted lineages) as a means to inhibit or eliminate their tumorgenic potential after transplantation.