Method for preparing cell fraction containing hemangioblasts

Patent Number: 7,455,962

Therapeutic angiogenesis offers the possibility of treating a variety of diseases associated with ischemia.  For example, autologous bone marrow stem cells were used at Indiana University for the treatment of critical limb ischemia patients.  Although several studies have used various bone marrow and bone marrow derived populations to induce production of new blood vessels, mechanistically, it is still unclear how this works.  In some situations endogenous stem cells respond to exogenous stem cells and differentiated into endothelial capillaries, in other studies, it is believed that the exogenously administered cells contain endothelial progenitors that differentiate into new vessels.

An ideal population of cells for therapeutic angiogenesis would be the hemangioblast.  This cell is a bi-potent precursor that can differentiate into either the endothelial lineage or the hematopoietic lineage and is found during embryonic development.  The current patent teaches a way how to isolate hemangioblasts based on expression of a molecule called podocalyxin-like protein 1 (PCLP-1).

PCLP-1 is a sialomucin related to CD34, the original marker found on hematopoietic stem cells and commercialized.   

The patent essentially covers a method of purifying hemangioblasts by selecting cells from the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region that are positive for expression of PCLP-1 and lack expression of CD45.  

View this patent on the USPTO website.