Prospective isolation of multipotent pancreatic progenitors using flow-cytometric cell sorting

During pancreatic development, neogenesis, and regen-eration, stem cells might act as a central player to generate endocrine, acinar, and duct cells. Although these cells are well known as pancreatic stem cells (PSCs), indisputable proof of their existence has not been reported. Identification of phenotypic markers for PSCs leads to their prospective isolation and precise characterization to clear whether stem cells exist in the pancreas. By combining flow cytometry and clonal anal-ysis, we show here that a possible pancreatic stem or progenitor cell candidate that resides in the developing and adult mouse pancreas expresses the receptor for the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) c-Met, but does not express hematopoietic and vascular endothelial anti-gens such as CD45, TER119, c-Kit, and Flk-1. These cell