Early stage multipotential stem cells in colonies of bone marrow stromal cells

Patent Number: 7056738

This is a composition of matter patent on a type of bone marrow derived stem cell. The authors state that marrow stromal cells (MSCS) are adult stem cells from bone marrow that can differentiate into multiple non-hematopoietic cell lineages. The authors identified that colonies of human MSCs contain both small, rapidly self-renewing stem cells (RS cells) and large, more mature cells (mMSCs). Samples enriched for RS cells had a greater potential for multipotential differentiation than samples enriched for mMSCs. Accordingly, the authors have a patent with one independent claim that covers a marrow stromal cells enriched for small and rapidly self-renewing stem (RS) cells, said population comprising about 95% RS cells, wherein said RS cells are about seven microns in diameter, comprise granular and agranular cells, and do not express STRO-1, PDGF-R, EGF-R, CD10 and CD147. The author demonstrated in a separate publication that stem cells, which appear similar to the ones in the patent, are actually capable of stimulating proliferation of endogenous brain stem cells when injected intracranially (Munoz JR et al. Human stem/progenitor cells from bone marrow promote neurogenesis of endogenous neural stem cells in the hippocampus of mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Dec 13;102(50):18171-6.). Other publications related to this patent appear to be: (Lee RH, et al. A subset of human rapidly self-renewing marrow stromal cells preferentially engraft in mice. Blood. 2006 Mar 1;107(5):2153-61.) ( Smith JR et al. Isolation of a highly clonogenic and multipotential subfraction of adult stem cells from bone marrow stroma. Stem Cells. 2004;22(5):823-31.) and ( Prockop DJ et al. Isolation and characterization of rapidly self-renewing stem cells from cultures of human marrow stromal cells. Cytotherapy. 2001;3(5):393-6.)

View this patent on the USPTO website.