Hematopoietic progenitors express embryonic stem cell and germ layer genes

Cell therapy for tissue regeneration requires cells with high self-renewal potential and with the capacity to differentiate into multiple differentiated cell lineages, like embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and adult somatic cells induced to pluripotency (iPSCs) by genetic manipulation. Here we report that normal adult mammalian bone marrow contains cells, with the cell surface antigen CD34, that naturally express genes characteristic of ESCs and required to generate iPSCs. In addition, these CD34+ cells spontaneously express, without genetic manipulation, genes characteristic of the three embryonic germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. In addition to the neural lineage genes we previously reported in these CD34+ cells, we found that they express genes of the mesodermal cardiac muscle lineage and of the endodermal pancreatic lineage as well as intestinal lineage genes. Thus, these normal cells in the adult spontaneously exhibit characteristics of embryonic-like stem cells.