Pluristem says its method of extracting stem cells preserves more cells, could set standard

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 7 - Pluristem Life Systems, Inc. said Wednesday that the company has overcome a major industry hurdle in the selection and separation of hematopoeitic stem cells from adult source tissue.

The methodologies used in current hematopoeitic stem cell expansion protocols apply an enrichment stage where a rare subpopulation of source cells, defined as CD34 positive cells, are selected from a large and mixed population of mononuclear cells.

This process results in a substantial loss of source cells and targets a cell population that may not represent the earliest extractable population of hematopoeitic stem cells, company officials said in a news release.

Additionally, to the best of the company's knowledge, there are no FDA-approved protocols for the selection of CD 34 positive cells for regular clinical use.

Pluristem said it has devised a method that extracts and preserves for use a much larger number of CD34 positive cells than prior methods.

Pluristem's approach to cell selection and separation was accomplished by using non-selected mononuclear cells in the company's U.S.-patented three dimensional scaffolding with flow-through co-culture techniques simulating the physiological environment within the bone marrow, officials said.

The efficacy of the system in expanding non-selected mononuclear cells is based upon the selective adherence of hematopoeitic stem cells and early progenitor cells from the general mononuclear-cells pool to the 3-D stroma cells cultures within the bioreactor system, officials said.

"The existing stem cell separation and selection process is not conducive to growing industry requirements in effectively separately the largest amount of CD-34 cells requisite for expansion. Pluristem's solution sets, what we expect, to become another industry standard," Ora Burger, vice president of development, said in the release.

Pluristem, based in Haifa, Israel, said it strives to become a leading biopharmaceutical company developing, producing and marketing stem cell products for cell regenerative therapy.

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