Cells expressing the CD133 (AC133, Prominin-1) marker are generally known as primitive hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSC and HPC). While cells expressing the CD133 marker are usually undifferentiated embryonic stem cell lines, this cell type is usually harvested from bone marrow and cord blood but can be also found in multiple locations including the liver, muscle, prostate, kidney, and neural tissue. CD133 stem cells appear to be ancestral to the CD34+ stem cell line due to their ability to differentiate into CD34+ cells and also their higher level of proliferation activity.
Capable of a high level of proliferation and a wide range of differentiation, transplantation of bone marrow CD133+ cell lines has been shown to not only induced multilineage human hematopoiesis through the CD34+ lineage but also induce regeneration of cell lines in vitro in multiple locations by differentiating into endothelial cells, neural cells, hepatocytes, osteoblasts, and myocytes, with the list of tissue types this cell can differentiate into gradually increasing.
CD133+ stem cells are isolated using positive immunomagnetic cell separation procedures from bone marrow.
