The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 20, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2007
Hiroshi Kubota, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Lola M. Reid, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Robert Storms, Durham, NC (US);
Hiroshi Kubota, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Lola M. Reid, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Robert Storms, Durham, NC (US);
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Abstract
The invention discloses the sequences of variant forms of alpha-fetoprotein transcripts that have been identified in human hemopoietic progenitors but not in differentiated mature cells. The variant forms of AFP (vAFP) cDNA sequences isolated from a multipotent hemopoietic cell line, K562, differ from the authentic AFP transcript, consisting of 15 exons, by lacking only exon 1. Instead of exon 1, vAFP transcripts use an additional one or two exons located in the 5'-untranslated region of the AFP gene. K562 expressed selectively vAFP, whereas a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2, showed no detectable expression of vAFP. In normal adult tissues, vAFP transcripts is detected in the bone marrow, thymus and brain, but not the spleen, suggesting the expression occurs in normal hemopoietic progenitors. Moreover, CD34+Lin− hemopoietic stem/progenitor cells purified by flow cytometric sorting also express the variant transcripts.