Stem cells are a type of cells of the body that exhibit an exclusive potentiality of self-renewal and differentiation. The self-renewal property enables stem cells to divide into
undifferentiated stem cells. Stem cells also have the potency to differentiate into various cell types of the body.
What are the types of Stem cells?
Stem cells are mainly two types.
Embryonic stem cells & Adults stem cell
Embryonic stem cells: These types of stem cells are available in the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early stage of embryonic development. These are pluripotent stem cells, that
can divide into more stem cells or can become any type of cell in the body. This exclusive property allows embryonic stem cells to regenerate or repair diseased tissue and
organs.
Adults stem: These stem cells are in small numbers in most adult tissues, such as bone marrow or fat. Compared with embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells are multi potent
progenitor cells possessing limited differentiation potential. It can be multi potent, capable of differentiating into multiple cell types, or uni potent, capable of generating only a single
specific cell type.
Uniqueness of Adult Stem Cell
Adult stem cells are unique in their differentiation ability, such that one type of adult stem cell can differentiate into a different kind of tissue under suitable growth conditions.
Adult stem cells can be reprogrammed by introducing different transcription factors to regain the capacity of pluripotency like embryonic stem cells. These stem cells are induced
pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Stem cells undoubtedly offer tremendous potential to treat many human diseases and repair tissue damage from injury or aging. Differentiation of Stem cells can be into various cells like
blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle cells, or bone cells under favorable conditions in vitro. Regeneration and repairing of diseased and injure tissues can be by using stem cell
therapies, this is also called Regenerative Medicine.
In recent years stem cell therapies have become an auspicious scientific research topic. At I3T our esteemed scientists are investigating stem cells to pertain their therapeutic
applications to improve certain disease conditions.
Reference
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8554700/
