Modulation of immune responses in blood-borne mesenchymal cells

Patent Number: 6054121

If I read this currently, this patent seems to cover the use of blood mesenchymal stem cells for stimulation of immune responses to antigens. This is the opposite to what the current knowledge of mesenchymal stem cells is...that being that they are immune suppressive. If these cells were immune stimulatory then the current Phase III trials for graft versus host disease that Osiris is doing would not show clinical benefit...clearly this is not the case since Phase II studies were promising.

But it seems like the population covered by this patent is different than the population used by Osiris. Firstly, because Osiris does not purify their cells from peripheral blood, and secondly because the cells used by Osiris do not express CD34, whereas the ones in this patent do.

View this patent on the USPTO website.