These iPSCs, once discovered, opened up those doors that ethical and moral questions shut for researchers. But, it was clear the iPSCs are different than hESCs and researchers had a fair bit of work in front of them to make sure that the iPSCs were at least comparable in the flexibility and thus utility of hESCs. This largely entailed experimenting with different environments and factors that the researchers would submit the cells to in order to create iPSCs. Eventually, researchers were able to derive iPSCs from more than just human skin cells (Yu et al, 2007), but other cells such as human urine cells (Zhou et al, 2012). As researchers have improved on these techniques, researchers like Morizane et al (2013) set out to investigate the quality of these iPSCs by injecting them into animals to investigate the utility of iPSCs as well as evaluate the benefits stem cells from one's own body may have on graft rejection or lack thereof.
In the study by Morizane et al (2013), the researchers used a primate model in order to evaluate the ability for autologous iPSCs and allogenic iPSCs to generate an immune response and engraft dopamine neurons in the primate midbrain. Like any other transplantation the immune system is an important player in the ability for the limb, cell, organ, etc. to engraft and become functional in the body. If recognized by certain immune cells in the body, the body can start attacking the transplant, reject it, and potentially damage the surrounding area in the process.
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