cell research is a very active and fast growing area of biology. Stem cells are the cells in an embryo that are capable of dividing and then differentiating into all the different types of cell that make up the human body. Stem cells are also found in the umbilical cord of a newborn baby and in the blood and some tissues of adults. Adult stem cells are only found in small numbers, which makes it difficult to use them in medicine.
Getting stem cells from embryos is highly controversial and such research is very carefully controlled.S
Stem cells can be totipotent, multipotent or unipotent. Totipotent stem cells can differentiated into any and every body cell. Multipotent stem cells are further down the path of differentiation and can only carry on to form a specific set of body cells - blood cells or bone cells, for example. Unipotent stem cells are even further down the road to differentiation and can develop into only one cell type.
Stem cells are exciting because of the possibilities they offer to repair and regenerated damaged cells, tissues and organs. Repair of spinal cord injuries is on of the great hopes of stem cells, but there may be many other applications in the future. So far, no treatments have been developed from stem cells, but we are finding out more about them every day.
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