The present invention is in the area of pluripotent stem cells and more particularly deals with a method to differentiate a vascular network from stem cells.

The invention provides for a method for aggregating dermal papilla cells or dermal sheath cells or a combination thereof, the method comprising: growing dermal papilla cells or dermal sheath cells or a combination thereof in suspension culture; and contacting the culture with an effective amount of an enzyme, wherein a substrate of the enzyme is an extracellular matrix molecule in the suspension culture, so as to aggregate dermal papilla cells or dermal sheath cells. The culture may be a hanging drop culture and the enzyme may be a hyaluronidase.

A transplantation medium for subretinal transplantation of a retinal pigment epithelial cell contains hyaluronic acid and a pharmaceutically acceptable aqueous liquid, in which the viscosity of the transplantation medium at a shear rate of 2 (1/s) at 25 C. is 1.5 to 4 mPa.Math.s.

The invention relates to a cryopreservation medium, which is a solution of high molecular hyaluronic acid and DMSO in stem cell culture salts, where high molecular weight hyaluronic acid has the molecular weight higher than 1,000,000 g/mol and concentration in the range from 0.08 to 0.2% (w/V). The cryopreservation medium is designed to preserve cell lines and stem cells under very low temperature conditions and allows a reduction in the concentration of the potentially cytotoxic cryoprotective dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Furthermore, the present invention relates to the use of cryopreservation medium and the method of cryopreservation.

This invention relates to a method for repair and reconstitution of invertebral discs in a subject which involves administration of STRO-1.sup.+ multipotent cells. The method of the invention is useful in the treatment of spinal conditions characterized by degeneration of the invertebral disc.

The present invention relates to cross-linked polymers (e.g., hydrogels) including hyaluronan polymer and multimeric cross-linker for treating disorders (e.g., retinal detachment or osteoarthritis), for use in screening models (e.g., in vitro cell culture system), or for cell transplantation (e.g., in vivo cell delivery).