Methods for isolation and activation of, and control of differentiation from, skeletal muscle stem or progenitor cells
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsMarie Csete, John Doyle, Barbara Wold
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method of isolating, maintaining, and/or enriching for stem or progenitor cells derived from diverse organ or tissue sources. The invention specifically teaches that these can be accomplished by the controlled use of subatmospheric oxygen culture, and that the precise oxygen level or levels must be determined empirically and/or by reference to physiologic levels within intact functioning organ or tissue. In particular, culturing skeletal muscle progenitor cells in less than 12% oxygen conditions or under 1% oxygen level.
Claims16
A method of accelerating differentiation of a stem cell or a progenitor cell, comprising culturing a starting cell that is a skeletal muscle stem or skeletal muscle progenitor cell in less than 12% oxygen conditions for a time sufficient to produce a skeletal muscle cell that is more differentiated than the starting cell.
A method of enhancing production of skeletal muscle cells that are more differentiated than are starting stem cells or progenitor cells, comprising
- a) first culturing skeletal muscle stem cell or skeletal muscle progenitor cell population in less than 12% oxygen conditions to expand the skeletal muscle stem or skeletal muscle progenitor cell population, and
- b) then culturing the expanded population in less than 12% oxygen conditions to further differentiation.
A method of manipulating a differentiation pathway of a stem or progenitor cell, comprising the step of:
- a) culturing a stem cell or a progenitor cell population comprising skeletal muscle and non-skeletal muscle cells in less than 12% oxygen conditions to obtain differentiated progeny, such that the percentage of differentiated skeletal muscle cells produced is increased relative to the percentage of non-skeletal muscle cells;
- and
- b) optionally culturing the differentiated progeny in less than 12% oxygen conditions, such that the differentiated progeny of step a) are further differentiated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.