Colony-forming unit cell of human chorion and method to obtain and use thereof

Isolated colony-forming unit cells derived from the chorion of human term placentas, wherein the isolated colony-forming unit cells are multipotent stem cells characterized by:

• I) expression of protein ACBD6;
• II) low telomerase activity and ability to be propagated over at least 70 doublings in vitro culture without substantial alteration of karyotype;
• III) expression of a combination of at least one of the markers from each of:
• iv) CD-90, SSEA-3, or TRA-1-60;
• v) a Nanog cytosolic polypeptide;
• vi) a neurofilament family cytosolic polypeptide;
• vii) a Nestin cytosolic polypeptide;
• and
• viii) one or more secreted polypeptides selected from a family of fibroblast growth factors, hepatocyte growth factors, keratinocyte growth factors, and angiopoietins;
• and
• ix) nuclear peptide Oct-4;
• IV) lack the ability for spontaneous differentiation into lineages of 3 germ layers under standard culture conditions, unless specifically stimulated and lack the ability for formation of teratomas in humans or immuno-compromised animals;
• V) ability to differentiate into lineages of all 3 germ layers when the cells are exposed to lineage-specific differentiation conditions;
• VI) ability to grow without adherence to plastic;
• and
• VII) inability to form embryoid-like bodies.