Xeno-free generation of tissue-specific progenitor cells
The invention relates to purified, tissue-specific progenitors, methods of making and using such tissue-specific progenitors.
1. A method for generating a tissue-specific progenitor, the method comprising the steps of:
co-culturing under xeno-free conditions a peripheral blood CD14 + monocyte or a peripheral blood CD14 + monocyte-derived macrophage, a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) obtained from a tissue of interest, and a human pluripotent cell in vitro until the human pluripotent cell differentiates into a cell exhibiting a phenotype characteristic of a progenitor of a cell of the tissue of interest, wherein the human pluripotent cell is selected from the group consisting of a human embryonic stem cell and a human induced pluripotent stem cell, and wherein when the tissue-specific progenitor is implanted in vivo into a host subject it differentiates into a cell of the tissue of interest.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the CD14 + cell is a monocyte.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral blood CD14 + monocyte-derived macrophage is obtained by culturing under xeno-free conditions a human peripheral blood monocyte until the peripheral blood monocyte exhibits a phenotype characteristic of a CD14 + monocyte-derived macrophage.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tissue-specific progenitor is selected from the group consisting of a hematopoietic progenitor, a cardiomyocyte progenitor, and a pancreatic islet progenitor.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tissue of interest is selected from the group consisting of bone marrow, heart, pancreas, lung, liver, skin, and kidney.