Patent ID: 6485971
Filing Date: 2002-11-26
Classification: C12N

Abstract:
A method of enriching for a viable subpopulation of epidermal cells having an altered proliferative potential compared with an unfractionated population of epidermal cells, wherein said subpopulation is keratinocyte stem cells (KSC) or transit amplifying (TA) cells, said method comprising the steps of:(a) harvesting a population of epidermal cells, (b) enriching the population resulting from step (a) for cells expressing a higher level of a cell surface integrin compared with an unfractionated population of epidermal cells, wherein said integrin comprises a subunit selected from the group consisting of &agr;2, &agr;3, &agr;6, &bgr;1, and &bgr;4, and (c) enriching the population resulting from step (b) for cells expressing either a lower level or a higher level of a marker associated with proliferation compared with an unfractionated population of epidermal cells, wherein said marker is selected from the group consisting of transferrin receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, insulin growth factor receptor and keratinocyte growth factor receptor, thereby enriching for said viable subpopulation of epidermal cells.