The invention is directed to methods for culturing cells so that the cells are induced to differentiate into cells that express a hepatic stellate phenotype and cells that express a hepatic sinusoidal endothelial phenotype. The invention is also directed to cells produced by the methods of the invention. The cells are useful, among other things, for treatment of liver deficiency, liver metabolism studies, and liver toxicity studies.

The present invention provides cell populations that are enriched for mesendoderm and mesoderm, and cell populations that are enriched for endoderm. The cell populations of the invention are useful for generating cells for cell replacement therapy. The present invention further provides a method of generating hepatocytes, cell populations enriched for hepatocytes, and a method of hepatocyte replacement therapy.

The present invention provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention provides an improved method for the formation of pancreatic endoderm, pancreatic hormone expressing cells and pancreatic hormone secreting cells. The present invention also provides methods to promote the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells without the use of a feeder cell layer.

A method for culturing placental potential cell is provided, comprising steps of: (1) obtaining placental cells and/or tissue under aseptic condition; (2) inoculating the placental cells and/or the tissue in a culture medium for culturing, adding cell growth regulators to the culture medium, in such a manner that the placental potential cells grows to make the placental cells and/or the tissue into a proliferative state; (3) culturing the placental potential cells to make the placental potential cells proliferate continuously into cells with characteristics of stem cells. The present invention not only finds the source of human tissues, organs and the continuation of their function, i.e., regenerative potential cells; but also finds a medical and health longevity method, but also finds out the life materials to maintain and support the potential cells, so as to replace drugs with the living material.

A cancer vaccine composition for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A*0206-positive persons, comprising a protein product of the tumor suppressor gene WT1 or a partial peptide thereof.

Provided are a synthetic peptide that induces the reprogramming of a differentiated cell, a reprogramming-inducing pharmaceutical composition that contains this synthetic peptide, and a method for producing an undifferentiated cell from a differentiated cell using this synthetic peptide. The peptide provided by the present invention is a synthetic peptide having a reprogramming-inducing peptide sequence formed of the amino acid sequence given by SEQ ID NO: 1 or a modified amino acid sequence thereof. The method for producing an undifferentiated cell provided by the present invention includes inducing the reprogramming of a target cell by culturing a cell culture which contains the target cell and to which the synthetic peptide has been supplied.

The present invention relates to the generation of anterior definitive endoderm (ADE) cells from embryonic stem cells and the differentiation of such cells to, for example, pancreatic or liver cells. The invention also relates to cell lines, cell culture methods, cell markers and the like and their potential uses in a variety of applications.

A method for inducing reprogramming of a cell of a first type which is not a non-hepatocyte (non-hepatocyte cell), into a cell with functional hepatic drug metabolizing and transporting capabilities, is disclosed. The non-hepatocyte is induced to express or overexpress hepatic fate conversion and maturation factors, cultured in somatic cell culture medium, hepatocyte cell culture medium and hepatocyte maturation medium for a sufficient period of time to convert the non-hepatocyte cell into a cell with hepatocyte-like properties. The iHeps induced according to the methods disclosed herein are functional induced hepatocytes (iHeps) in that they express I and II drug-metabolizing enzymes and phase III drug transporters and show superior drug metabolizing activity compared to iHeps obtained by prior art methods. The iHeps thus provide a cell resource for pharmaceutical applications.

The invention is directed to in vitro methods of inducing differentiation of anterior foregut endoderm and the enriched populations of anterior foregut endoderm produced by such methods. Such enriched populations are useful for studies of the molecular events that occur during differentiation and for generating cells for cell replacement therapy.

The present invention relates to methods for expanding a stem cell population. More particularly, the invention relates, inter alia, to methods and compositions for expanding a stem cell population, particularly a hematopoietic stem cell population.