What the blip do you know about - cells renewal (stem cells)?

Tweet

Certain tissues are constantly renewing. Examples for such tissues are blood, skin, intestines and more. In those tissues there are stem cells, that makes the regeneration possible. The blood system is the most classic example for such a phenomenon, and the research of blood stem cells is by far the most vast. There are cells in the blood system that can regenerate a whole blood system! It is all possible due to the multipotency and almost endless proliferation ability of stem cells. Stem cells differ from other cells by having the following attributes: Proliferation ability, differentiation ability, multipotency and self renewal. Stem cells are also classified by their differentiation ability: Totipotent are capable of creating a whole organism (like a fertilized ovum). Pluripotent are capable to differentiate to more than 200 different tissues, but not all. Multipotent - adult stem cells that are specific to a certain tissue (like blood stem cells). In a grown man, one might find all types but totipotent, except for a fertilized ovum. So we have cells that can differentiate to many types of cells and have an almost infinite proliferation ability. That is great for renewing our body, right? Stem cells have many more attributes like attraction to dammaged tissues, in order to differentiate and replace the dammaged cells and more. When we want to use stem cells, we can get them from lab fetals, early abortions and a procedure called Somatic Cell Nuclear transfer, in which an ovum is emptied from its genetic content, and is fused with another cell. What we get is an ovum with the nucleus of the somatic cell, and we get something that looks exactly like the donnor of the somatic cell. Stem cell research is pretty young (the first time a human stem cell was isolated was in 1989). Dolly the sheep was a stem cells research product. There are many uses for stem cells nowdays, and many are planned for the future. Many think it would be the ultimate cure, while others fear the implications (mostly people who are not from the accademy). It is hard to encompass such a subject in one post. If you have any questions, remarks etc., post it here and I'll answer.