Repair of Ischemic Injury by Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Cell Therapy without Teratoma through Selective Photosensitivity

• Pluripotent specific KR induces ESC specific cell death by light exposure
• Specific cell death of KR-ESCs by light exposure inhibits teratoma formation
• ECs from KR-ESCs remain fully functional in vitro and in vivo by light exposure

SummaryStem-toxic small molecules have been developed to induce selective cell death of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to lower the risk of teratoma formation. However, despite their high efficacies, chemical-based approaches may carry unexpected toxicities on specific differentiated cell types. Herein, we took advantage of KillerRed (KR) as a suicide gene, to selectively induce phototoxicity using visible light via the production of reactive oxygen species. PSCs in an undifferentiated state that exclusively expressed KR (KR-PSCs) were eliminated by a single exposure to visible light. This highly selective cell death in KR-PSCs was exploited to successfully inhibit teratoma formation. In particular, endothelial cells from KR-mPSCs remained fully functional in vitro and sufficient to repair ischemic injury in vivo regardless of light exposure, suggesting that a genetic approach in which KR is expressed in a tightly controlled manner would be a viable strategy to inhibit teratoma formation for future safe PSC-based therapies.

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