摘要 |
The present invention provides an isolated myeloid-like bone marrow cell population comprising a majority of cells that are lineage negative, and which express both CD44 antigen and CD11b antigen. These cells have beneficial vasculotrophic and neurotrophic activity when intraocularly administered to the eye of a mammal, particularly a mammal suffering from an ocular degenerative disease. The myeloid-like bone marrow cells are isolated by treating bone marrow cells with an antibody against CD44 (hyaluronic acid receptor), against CD11b, or against both and using flow cytometry to positively select CD44 and/or CD11b expressing cells therefrom. The isolated myeloid-like bone marrow cells of the invention can be transfected with a gene encoding a therapeutically useful protein, for delivering the gene to the retina.
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