Use of cells derived from first trimester umbilical cord tissue

A method of treating a condition of cellular damage, comprising supplanting the function of a damaged cell with a pluripotent cell from a human umbilical cord, wherein the pluripotent cell is obtained by:

• collecting an umbilical cord from fetal tissue obtained at less than 13 weeks of gestation, by collecting fetal placenta tissue by surgical aspiration;
• and separating the umbilical cord from the fetal placenta tissue;
• treating the umbilical cord to obtain isolated umbilical cord cells, by:
• washing the umbilical cord with PBS,
• cutting the umbilical cord, comprising an artery and two vessels, into smaller cut pieces,
• treating the cut pieces with collagenase to obtain isolated umbilical cord cells, and
• washing the isolated umbilical cord cells with PBS;
• and
• incubating the isolated umbilical cord cells, by suspending the isolated umbilical cord cells in a maintenance medium comprising α-MEM, penicillin-streptomycin, and amphotericin;
• and
• maintaining the isolated umbilical cord cells under appropriate growth conditions of 37° C., 5% CO2;
• wherein prior to cutting the umbilical cord into smaller cut pieces, the umbilical cord is from 0.5-2.0 cm in length and comprises an artery;
• wherein the isolated umbilical cord cells express one or more transcription factor associated with undifferentiated stem cells;
• and the transcription factor is OCT-4, SOX-2, or Nanog;
• and
• wherein the condition of cellular damage is spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular injury, heart disease, stroke, burn, diabetes, osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.