Types of Stem Cells

Home Types of Stem Cells

Embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem cells are collected from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst that forms in human within three to five days after a sperm fertilize an egg cell. Usually, the cells inside the inner cell mass will help to grow more specialized cells, which in turn, help to grow the entire body cells - all the tissues and organs. But when the scientists collected the inner cell mass and develop the cells in special laboratory conditions, they preserve the properties of embryonic stem cells. The cells are pluripotent, which means they can help to grow all the cell type in the fully developed body, but not umbilical cord and the placenta. These are precious because they provide a renewable source to study and learn normal development and disease, and to test drugs and other therapies.

Also known as adult stem cells or somatic, these cells are more specific than embryonic stem cells. Tissue-specific stem cells are capable of generating different cell types in the particular tissue or organ where they live. For instance, blood-forming stem cells (also known as hematopoietic) in the bone marrow can help to grow the white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. However, the stem cells that form the blood do not generate lung or liver or brain cells. Some tissues and organs that have small caches of stem cells of specific tissues, whose job it is to substitute cells of those particular tissues that have been lost in injury or normal day-to-day living, such as those tissues in the skin, the lining of the gut and blood. Stem cells with specific tissues can be tough to find in the body of a human, and they do not have the self-renew characteristic like an embryonic stem.

Tissue-specific stem cells

Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (known as MSCs) are the adult stem cells that are usually found in the bone marrow. However, these stem cells can also be isolated from different tissues including peripheral blood, cord blood, fallopian tube, lung and fetal liver. Such stem cells are stromal cells that are multipotent, and it can differentiate into different cell types, including chondrocytes (known as cartilage cells), osteoblasts (known as bone cells), myocytes (known as muscle cells) and adipocytes (known as fat cells which help to grow marrow adipose tissue). MSCs can make not only fat, but also bone cells and cartilage, but they cannot make other types of cells in our body.

Induced pluripotent stem cells

These Stem cells are those cells that are created in the laboratory by changing cells with specific tissues, like skin cells, into such cells that act like embryonic stem cells. These stem cells can help scientists to understand and learn more about the usual development and disease onset. It is also useful for testing and developing new drugs and therapies. While these stem cells share many characteristics of embryonic stem cells, they are not precisely the same. Research and studies are still going on to identify the main differences and what these difference mean. These cells can be created from the tissue of the same person that will receive the transplantation, so it is easy to avoid the immune rejection.

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