Umbilical cord blood ALDH+ cells are isolated by their high aldehyde dehydrogenase expression. The activity of total hematopoietic colony-forming cells (CFC-H), which includes erythroid, myeloid and megakaryocytic progenitor cells, is significantly higher in this population when compared to the unsorted population.
The cells are primed by a cytokine cocktail consisting of stem cell factor, FLT-3 and interleukin 7 in a serum-free medium.