Patent Document ID: 9446073
Application ID: 12511210
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of producing a substantially pure in vitro cell culture of non-lineage committed precursor cells (n-LCP) isolated from the dental papillary annulus of teeth in any stage of development, comprising: (a) providing dental tissue in any stage of development from a mammal; (b) dissecting the dental tissue to isolate its dental papillary annulus; (c) culturing the annular tissue as adherent explants on collagen-coated and/or fibronectin-coated culture substrates to isolate n-LCPs characterized by the positive expression of one or more of the following markers: i. Nestin, PDGFR alpha , CD49d (alpha4-integrin), CD56 (N-CAM), CD133; ii. and further characterized by positive expression of one or more of the following marker genes: Sox2, Sox9, Sox10, Snail1, Snail2, D1x6, Pcbp4, Msx2, HIfx, Thip1, Vars2, Myo10, 270094K13Rik, Ets1, Pygo2, Adam12, 5730449L18Rik, Rex3, Vdac1, AU041707, Pfn1, Crmp1, Ubc4b; and (d) culturing one or more of the isolated n-LCPs as adherent cells under suitable conditions to obtain a substantially pure population; and (e) expanding one or more of the isolated n-LCP populations as adherent cells by sub-culture or other suitable means.