Patent ID: 8603809

Claim:
A composition consisting of isolated pluripotent adult stem cells obtained from an exocrine glandular tissue of a salivary gland, a lacrimal gland, a sudoriferous gland, a sebaceous gland and/or gastrointestinal tissue, wherein the exocrine glandular tissue originates from a mammal, wherein the process for producing the isolated pluripotent adult stem cells comprises: removal of exocrine glandular tissue; the tissue thus removed is divided in such a gentle way that cell structures in resulting tissue fragments are largely preserved; the divided tissue is cultured in a culture medium in the absence of additional specific growth factors or differentiation factors, whereby most of the differentiated cells become detached from the stem cells, whereupon the stem cells adhere on a bottom of a tissue culture vessel; the remaining tissue and nonadherent differentiated cells are largely separated by a first change of medium and the remaining nonadherent cells are separated by additional changes of medium at intervals of about 2 to 3 days; and isolating the pluripotent adult stem cells, further wherein the isolated pluripotent adult stem cells are capable of differentiating into cell types of all three germ layers in a culture medium that does not contain any additional growth factors or differentiation factors after culturing under spatial conditions which ensure three dimensional contact of the cells.