Embryonic Stem Cells In The Body

Stem cells are cells that have the capacity to develop into some or many different cell types in the body, depending on whether they are multipotent or pluripotent. Serving as a sort of repair system, they can theoretically divide without limit to restore other cells for as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each "daughter" cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. Commonly, stem cells come from two main sources. Such as: Embryos formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development- embryonic stem cells and Adult tissue-adult stem cells. Both types are generally distinguished by their potency, or potential to differentiate into different cell types (such as skin, muscle, bone, etc.).
Adult or somatic stem cells exist throughout the body after embryonic development and are found inside of different types of tissue. Embryonic stem cells are a copy from a four- or five-day-old human embryo that is in the blastocyst phase of development. …show more content…
Although stem cells do not serve any one function, many have the capacity to serve any function after they are instructed to specialize. Every cell in the body, for example, is derived from first few stem cells formed in the early stages of embryological development. Therefore, stem cells extracted from embryos can be induced to become any desired cell type. This property makes stem cells powerful enough to regenerate damaged tissue under the right conditions. Tissue regeneration is probably the most important possible application of stem cell research. Currently, organs must be donated and transplanted, but the demand for organs far exceeds supply. Stem cells could potentially be used to grow a particular type of tissue or organ if directed to differentiate in a certain