413 results about "Pluripotential stem cell" patented technology

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention provides an improved method for the formation of pancreatic endoderm, pancreatic hormone expressing cells and pancreatic hormone secreting cells. The present invention also provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells without the use of a feeder cell layer.

This invention provides a method for deriving precursors to pluripotent non-embryonic stem (P-PNES) and pluripotent non-embryonic stem (PNES) cell lines. The present invention involves nuclear transfer of genetic material from a somatic cell into an enucleated, zona pellucida free human ooplastoid having a reduced amount of total cytoplasm. The present invention provides a new source for obtaining human and other animal pluripotent stem cells. The source utilizes as starting materials an oocyte and a somatic cell as the starting materials but does not require the use, creation and/or destruction of embryos or fetal tissue and does not in any way involve creating a cloned being. The oocyte never becomes fertilized and never develops into an embryo. Rather, portions of the oocyte cytoplasm are extracted and combined with the nuclear material of individual mature somatic cells in a manner that precludes embryo formation. Murine, bovine, and human examples of the procedure are demonstrated. Subsequently, the newly constructed P-PNES cells are cultured in vitro and give rise to PNES cells and cell colonies. Methods are described for culturing the P-PNES cells to yield purified PNES cells which have the ability to differentiate into cells derived from mesoderm, endoderm, and ectoderm germ layers. Methods are described for maintaining and proliferating PNES cells in culture in an undifferentiated state. Methods and results are described for analysis and validation of pluripotency of PNES cells including cell morphology, cell surface markers, pluripotent tumor development in SCID mouse, karyotyping, immortality in in vitro culture.

Methods are described to more efficiently produce cells of the endoderm and pancreatic lineage from mammalian pluripotent stem cells. These methods provide a simple, reproducible culture protocol using defined media components to enable consistent, large-scale production of pancreatic cell types for research or therapeutic uses.

This disclosure provides a newly developed strategy and particular options for differentiating pluripotent stem cells into cells of the hepatocyte lineage. Many of the protocols are based on a strategy in which the cells are first differentiated into early germ layer cells, then into hepatocyte precursors, and then into mature cells. The cells obtained have morphological features and phenotypic markers characteristic of human adult hepatocytes. They also show evidence of cytochrome p450 enzyme activity, validating their utility for commercial applications such as drug screening, or use in the manufacture of medicaments and medical devices for clinical therapy.

Provided herein are methods for generating human induced pluripotent stem cells free from genomic integration of exogenous transgenes by transfecting into nucleated blood cells one or more DNA expression vectors (e.g., plasmid vectors) that do not contain a mammalian origin of replication, and encode and permit expression of one or more reprogramming factors (e.g., Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc). Also provided herein are the integration-free human induced pluripotent stem cells obtained by the methods described herein.

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into insulin producing cells. In particular, the present invention provides a method to increase the expression of NGN3 and NKX6.1 in populations of cells expressing markers characteristic of the pancreatic endocrine lineage.

Provided is an isolated human naive pluripotent stem cell (PSC), wherein: (i) when the naive PSC is a female PSC, then said naive female PSC has two unmethylated alleles of an X-inactive specific transcript (XIST) gene; and (ii) when said naive PSC is a male PSC, then said naive male PSC has an unmethylated allele of said XIST gene. Also provided is a culture medium which comprises an ERK1/2 inhibitor, a GSK3beta inhibitor, a p38 inhibitor, a JNK inhibitor, a STAT3 activator and at least one agent selected from the group consisting of: bFGF, TGFbeta 1, a PKC inhibitor, a ROCK inhibitor and a NOTCH inhibitor; or at least agent selected from the group consisting of: a TGFR inhibitor, a FGFR inhibitor, a PKC inhibitor, a ROCK inhibitor and a NOTCH inhibitor.

The present invention relates to pluripotent stem cells, particularly to pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells. The invention further relates to methods of purifying pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells and to compositions, cultures and clones thereof. The present invention also relates to a method of transplanting the pluripotent stem cells of the present invention in a mammalian host, such as human, comprising introducing the stem cells, into the host. The invention further relates to methods of in vivo administration of a protein or gene of interest comprising transfecting a pluripotent stem cell with a construct comprising DNA which encodes a protein of interest and then introducing the stem cell into the host where the protein or gene of interest is expressed. The present also relates to methods of producing mesodermal, endodermal or ectodermal lineage-committed cells by culturing or transplantation of the pluripotent stem cells of the present invention.

The present invention provides for a method for stimulating the proliferation of pluripotential stem cells in a mammal comprising administration of pregnancy related compounds more particularly human chorionic gonadotropin, leutenizing hormone or prolactin. The present invention further provides for a method of treatment of tissues or organs experiencing cellular damage, injury or disease.

The present invention is directed to methods to differentiate pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention is directed to methods and compositions to differentiate pluripotent stem cells into cells expressing markers characteristic of the definitive endoderm lineage comprising culturing the pluripotent stem cells in medium comprising a sufficient amount of GDF-8 to cause the differentiation of the pluripotent stem cells into cells expressing markers characteristic of the definitive endoderm lineage.

This disclosure provides an improved system for culturing human pluripotent stem cells. Traditionally, pluripotent stem cells are cultured on a layer of feeder cells (such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts) to prevent them from differentiating. In the system described here, the role of feeder cells is replaced by components added to the culture environment that support rapid proliferation without differentiation. Effective features are a suitable support structure for the cells, and an effective medium that can be added fresh to the culture without being preconditioned by another cell type. Culturing human embryonic stem cells in fresh medium according to this invention causes the cells to expand surprisingly rapidly, while retaining the ability to differentiate into cells representing all three embryonic germ layers. This new culture system allows for bulk proliferation of pPS cells for commercial production of important products for use in drug screening and human therapy.

Methods for producing hepatocyte and/or cholangiocyte lineage cells from pluripotent stem cells, the method comprising (a) specifying the extended nodal agonist treated induced endodermal cell population to obtain a cell population comprising hepatocyte and/or cholangiocyte progenitors by contacting the extended nodal agonist treated induced endodermal cell population with specification media comprising a FGF agonist and a BMP4 agonist and/or active conjugates and/or fragments thereof; (b) inducing maturation, and optionally further lineage specification and/or expansion of the hepatocyte and/or cholangiocyte progenitors of the cell population to obtain a population comprising hepatocyte lineage cells such as hepatoblasts, hepatocytes and/or cholangiocytes, the inducing maturation step comprising generating aggregates of the cell population. Optionally, the method also comprises activating the cAMP pathway within the aggregates and forming co-aggregates.

The present invention relates to: a method for inducing differentiation into an epithelial progenitor cell/stem cell population or a corneal epithelial cell population by culturing, under particular conditions, induced pluripotent stem cells induced from mammalian somatic cells or undifferentiated stem cells; an epithelial progenitor cell/stem cell population or a corneal epithelial cell population obtained by the method; and a cell preparation for the treatment of epithelial disease and a cell sheet, which are prepared using these cell populations.

The invention provides methods of differentiating primate pluripotent stem cells into cells of hematopoietic lineage. The invention further provides hematopoietic lineage cells differentiated from primate pluripotent stem cells, as well as methods of using the same and kits comprising the same.

The generation of clinical-grade cell-based therapies from human embryonic stem cells or cells reprogrammed to pluripotency from somatic cells, requires stringent quality controls to insure that the cells have long enough telomeres and resulting cellular lifespan to be clinically useful, and normal gene expression and genomic integrity so as to insure cells with a desired and reproducible phenotype and to reduce the risk of the malignant transformation of cells. Assays useful in identifying human embryonic stem cell lines and pluripotent cells resulting from the transcriptional reprogramming of somatic cells that have embryonic telomere length are described as well as quality control assays for screening genomic integrity in cells expanded and banked for therapeutic use, as well as assays to identify cells capable of abnormal immortalization,