Patent ID: 7067316

Claim:
A method for in vitro culture of human hematopoietic progenitor cells comprising: introducing an amount of hematopoietic progenitor cells into a porous, solid matrix having interconnected pores of a pore size sufficient to permit said cells to grow throughout the matrix, and culturing said cells in an environment that is free of inoculated stromal cells, stromal cell conditioned medium, and exogenously added hematopoietic growth factors that promote hematopoietic cell maintenance, expansion and/or differentiation, other than serum, for at least one week with a weekly media change, wherein the porous, solid matrix is a unitary microstructure, and wherein the in vitro culture results in an increase in the amount of hematopoietic progenitor cells relative to the amount introduced into said porous, solid matrix.