Patent ID: 8343481

Claim:
A method of preparing a population of in vitro cultured cells of alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cell lineage derived from at least one embryonic stem cell, comprising; (a) culturing said at least one embryonic stem cell, wherein said at least one embryonic stem cell comprises a transgene operably linked to a cell-specific promoter, in vitro in a medium comprising MATRIGEL® (a gelatinous protein mixture secreted by Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm (EHS) mouse sarcoma cells), to produce differentiated cells without formation of an embryonic body, wherein at least some 99% of said differentiated cells are of ATII cell phenotype; (b) identifying said differentiated cells of ATII cell phenotype by detecting expression of at least one biomarker of ATII cells; (c) isolating the differentiated cells having ATII cell phenotype; and (d) cloning the isolated cells to produce a population of cells having ATII cell phenotype.