Patent ID: 8067233

Claim:
A method of isolating a population of human pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells (ELSCs), comprising the steps of: (a) isolating human corneal limbal tissue from a donor; (b) removing the epithelial layer of the human corneal limbal tissue, (c) culturing the human corneal limbal tissue on an extracellular matrix to expand corneal limbal cells in culture; (d) dissociating the cultured corneal limbal cells from the extracellular matrix; and (e) isolating a population of human pluripotent ELSCs from the cultured corneal limbal cells by sorting the corneal limbal cells to select for an undifferentiated cell-specific surface marker selected from the group consisting of SSEA-4 and SSEA-3, wherein the isolated pluripotent ELSCs are capable of forming embryoid-like bodies when placed in suspension culture and the pluripotent ELSCs remain substantially undifferentiated after 20 passages in culture.