Rh Blood Group Conversion using Engineered Nucleases

Abstract

The Rh (Rhesus) blood group system (including the Rh factor) is the most important blood group system following ABO blood group. The Rh blood group system consists of mainly five antigens D, C, c, E, and e. The commonly used terms Rh factor, Rh positive and Rh negative refer to the D antigen only. In this study, we used TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases), a powerful tool for genome editing on HiDEP-1 (human iPS cell-derived erythroid progenitor-1) cell line for the conversion of Rh positive patient cell line to Rh negative HiDEP-1 cell line. Additionally, we confirmed Rh negative HiDEP-1 cell line can differentiate into erythrocyte which does not express D antigen. Here, we established a technology to convert human blood groups using engineered nucleases. In addition, this technology could be further utilized for blood transfusion medicine.