The present invention relates to the field of cell therapy, and specifically relates to a method for producing a mesenchymal stem cell population, the mesenchymal stem cell population and a culture supernatant thereof produced by the method, and a pharmaceutical composition containing such cells or the culture supernatant thereof. The present invention further relates to use of the mesenchymal stem cell population and the culture supernatant thereof for preventing and treating diseases.

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods related to differentiation of stem cells into pancreatic endocrine cells. In some aspects, the methods provided herein relate to generation of pancreatic β cell, α cell, δ cells, and EC cells in vitro. In some aspects, the disclosure provides pharmaceutical compositions including the cells generated according to the methods disclosed herein, as well as methods of treatment making use thereof.

The invention relates to improved methods for culturing an epithelial stem cell or an organoid comprising epithelial stem cells. The invention also relates to culture media suitable for use with said methods, organoids obtainable or obtained by said methods and uses of said culture methods, media and organoids in drug discovery and validation, toxicity assays, diagnostics and therapy.

The subject matter of the present invention is a method for differentiating epithelial stem cells, comprising culturing one or more epithelial stem cells in contact with an extracellular matrix in the presence of an expansion medium, a bovine pituitary extract, a receptor tyrosine kinase ligand, a supernatant of primary fibroblasts and optionally, a Rho kinase inhibitor.

Disclosed is a method of producing ABCG2-positive corneal limbal stem cells through inducing pluripotent stem cells first into eye precursor cells and then differentiating the eye precursor cells into ABCG2-positive corneal limbal stem cells. Also disclosed is a method of maintaining ABCG2-positive phenotype of corneal limbal stem cells, such as primary corneal limbal stem cells.

A method for producing an epithelial cell sheet, comprising culturing cells derived from oral mucosal epithelial cells on a substrate in a serum-free medium, wherein the serum-free medium comprises (i) EGF protein or KGF protein, (ii) B-27 supplement, and (iii) a ROCK inhibitor.

The present invention relates to improvement of the yield of skin-derived pluripotent precursor cells in induction of differentiation of stem cells to skin-derived pluripotent precursor cells. The present invention provides a method for preparing skin-derived pluripotent precursor cell comprising culturing a neural crest stem cells in the presence of at least one selected from the group consisting of laminin and a fragment thereof to differentiate the cells to skin-derived pluripotent precursor cells, wherein the laminin is at least one selected from the group consisting of laminin 111, laminin 121, laminin 332, laminin 421, laminin 511, laminin 521, and a variant thereof.

Methods for differentiating human pluripotent stem cells to dorsal neuroectoderm progenitors and further to glial progenitor cells and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) using inhibitors of BMP signaling and MAPK/ERK signaling are provided. Also provided are cells and cellular compositions obtained by such methods, and uses of such cells. Further provided are methods and protocols for efficiently differentiating human pluripotent stem cells to OPCs in the absence of the ventralizing morphogen SHH or a SHH signaling activator. The methods of the present disclosure reproducibly produce dorsal neuroectoderm progenitor cells by day 7 of the differentiation process, glial progenitor cells by day 21 of the differentiation process and OPCs by day 42 of the differentiation process.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide (i) a method for maintaining or enhancing the activity of a cell mass separated from an epithelial tissue; (ii) a method for increasing the proliferation ability of cells in an epithelial tissue; (iii) a method for producing a cell mass employing these methods; (iv) a pharmaceutical composition containing the cell mass; and, (v) a method for treating a disease using the cell mass. The purpose is fulfilled by culturing a cell mass separated from an epithelial tissue or an epithelial tissue with a thermoreversible polymer.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing an intestinal epithelial cell, which has a large number of cells per area and a high accuracy of kinetic prediction for a CYP3A4 substrate drug such as midazolam, by inducing the differentiation of a pluripotent stem cell, as well as the intestinal epithelial cell, a cell sheet, an evaluation method for a test substance, a screening kit for a test substance, and a cell preparation. According to the present invention, there is provided a production method for an intestinal epithelial cell, including a first differentiation step of differentiating a pluripotent stem cell into an intestinal stem cell, a proliferation step of proliferating the intestinal stem cell obtained in the differentiation step, and a second differentiation step of differentiating the intestinal stem cell obtained in the proliferation step into an intestinal epithelial cell, in which the proliferation step is a step of bringing the intestinal stem cell into a specific state.