The application of cells derived from individual patients’ own iPSCs or iPSCs from matched donors may become a cornerstone of precision medicine, and has the important advantage that there should be no need for long-term immune suppression to preserve the transplante cells. Indeed, the first iPSC clinical trial used RPEs from autologous iPSCs derived from the patient. Using autologous iPSC products for personalized cell therapy seems ideal for orphan diseases, as massive cell banking is not required. However, for more common diseases, especially acute common diseases such as cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or myocardial infarction (MI), autologous iPSC therapy may not be practical for large number of patients given the high cost and lengthy period of time needed for careful validation of each cell line. For these reasons, the second phase of the iPSC-RPE trial in Japan will be employing allogeneic products168.
