ASSAY FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF MULTILINEAGE STEM CELASSAY FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF MULTILINEAGE STEM CELLS AND METHODS OF USE THEREOF LS AND METHODS OF USE THEREOF

摘要

The present invention encompasses methods of detecting and quantitating hematopoietic stem cells in a population of hematopoietic cells. A population of hematopoietic cells is first obtained and treated to enrich for stem cells. Single cells in the enriched population are deposited onto a suitable growth substrate such as a well in a 96 well microtiter plate. The single cell deposits are cultured under conditions suitable to maintain viability and induce differentiation. The resultant populations are then assayed for the expression of lineage-specific messenger RNA transcripts specific to at least two different lineages. The presence of transcripts specific to two or more different lineages is scored as positive for the initial presence of a stem cell.