Patent ID: 8771677

Claim:
Isolated colony-forming unit cells derived from the chorion of human term placentas, wherein the isolated colony-forming unit cells are multipotent stem cells characterized by: I) expression of protein ACBD6; II) low telomerase activity and ability to be propagated over at least 70 doublings in vitro culture without substantial alteration of karyotype; III) expression of a combination of at least one of the markers from each of: iv) CD-90, SSEA-3, or TRA-1-60; v) a Nanog cytosolic polypeptide; vi) a neurofilament family cytosolic polypeptide; vii) a Nestin cytosolic polypeptide; and viii) one or more secreted polypeptides selected from a family of fibroblast growth factors, hepatocyte growth factors, keratinocyte growth factors, and angiopoietins; and ix) nuclear peptide Oct-4; IV) lack the ability for spontaneous differentiation into lineages of 3 germ layers under standard culture conditions, unless specifically stimulated and lack the ability for formation of teratomas in humans or immuno-compromised animals; V) ability to differentiate into lineages of all 3 germ layers when the cells are exposed to lineage-specific differentiation conditions; VI) ability to grow without adherence to plastic; and VII) inability to form embryoid-like bodies.