Exploitation of Herpesvirus Immune Evasion Strategies to Modify the Immunogenicity of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplants

Abstract

Our findings demonstrate the potential utility of herpesviral immunoevasins to prevent rejection of xenogeneic MSCs. The observation that down-regulation of MHC class I surface expression renders hMSCs vulnerable to NK cell recognition and cytolysis implies that multiple viral immune evasion proteins are likely required to make hMSCs non-immunogenic and thereby universally transplantable.