Method for transdifferentiation of non-pancreatic stem cells to the pancreatic differentiation pathway

Patent Number: 7,202,080

This patent teaches methods of generating pancreatic-like cells for either hematopoietic stem cells or mesenchymal stem cells. The patent covers the use of specific tissue culture cocktail which contains various growth factors, for inducing expression of pancreatic genes in cells of CD34 or mesenchymal lineage.

The patent does not document in vivo activity of the cells generated by these means, nor does do the claims appear very far reaching. For example, the detailed claiming of specific culture reagents "DMEM" makes the reader wonder whether the patent can be circumvented just by using RPMI or Optimem instead of DMEM.

If the patent claims covered functionality of the culture medium, it appears the claims could have been much stronger.

View this patent on the USPTO website.