Compositions of isolated adult organ stem cells, including hematopoietic stem cells, cardiac stem cells, and kidney stem cells, are disclosed. In particular, the present invention provides c-kit positive, lineage negative adult stem cells that can be isolated from adult organ tissue. Such stem cells are capable of generating all the cell lineages of the organ tissue from which they were isolated. Methods for repairing damaged organ tissue with the isolated organ stem cells are also disclosed.
