Method for culturing human hematopoietic stem cells in vitro

Patent Number: 5436151

This patent teaches how to culture hematopoietic stem cells so as to expand the hematopoietic repopulating ability through the culture on top of stromal cells, however under conditions so that the stromal cells are not in physical contact with the hematopoietic stem cells.

There is great interest in methods of culturing and expanding stem cell populations using various types of "feeder" cells. It is an interesting question to ask, what if this patent was practiced not by using bone marrow stromal cells as the "feeder cells" but if embryonic stem cells were used instead. Would it be possible that the embryonic stem cells secrete some "rejuvenating factor" that allow the hematopoietic stem cells to actually growt faster?

View this patent on the USPTO website.