Methods, compositions and cells are provided that identify and isolate a
population of adult non-embryonic
progenitor cells having multilineage potential, physical diameters of about 2 μm to about 8 μm in size or about 4 μm to about 6 μm, and expressing at least one of the
stem cell associated genes among Oct-4, KLF-4, Nanog, Sox-2, Rex-1, GDF-3 or Stella. Methods are also provided that identify and isolate populations, which are subsets or subpopulations of
progenitor adult stem cells within the
population of the adult stem cells which is a
heterogeneous population, the methods including contacting the adult stem cells with a ligand specific for at least one of: CD99, tetraspan, ICAM4, full-length MUC1, and truncated MUC1
receptor, in which a presence of a
surface protein on the cells that bind to the ligand identifies the
population which is the subset of the differentiated
progenitor adult stem cells.