Patent ID: 8268619

Claim:
A method to obtain stem cells able to repair damaged myocardiac tissue, comprising the following steps: fragmenting a cardiac tissue in vitro to obtain a plurality of tissue fragments; adhering said tissue fragments to a solid support; culturing said tissue fragments in a culture medium, wherein said culture medium comprises one or more nutrients and wherein said tissue fragments are sized to allow the diffusion of said nutrients to said tissue fragments; culturing said tissue fragments until one or more phase-bright cells form; harvesting the phase-bright cells; culturing the phase-bright cells on a treated substrate to generate one or more cardiospheres; wherein the cardiospheres form substantially spheroid structures of about 20 μm to about 150 μm in culture; wherein the cardiospheres are multicellular aggregates; wherein the cardiospheres comprise a mixed population of cells; wherein the mixed population comprises stem cells, cardiac cells, and endothelial cells, wherein the stem cells express at least one of the following three markers: CD34, c-kit and sca-1 within 12 hours of said cardiospheres being generated, wherein the endothelial cells express at least one of KDR, flk-1, and CD31 within 12 hours of said cardiospheres being generated, wherein the cardiospheres are weakly adherent or non-adherent to the treated substrate; and harvesting the cardiospheres, thereby obtaining stem cells for use in repairing damaged myocardiac tissue.