

Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.
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Stem-Cell-Blog
Stem cell blogs supports research, treatments and therapy using stem cell derived technologies that do not destroy human life.www.stem-cell-blog.com/The Stem Cell
The stem cell "treatment" center is on the home page. ... The Health Care Blog. The Stem Cell Advisors. stanford. Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics ...thestemcellblog.com/Stem Cells Blog
Stem Cells Blog. What's the Buzz??? Back to Main Page ... Posted by Stem Cells Blog at 10/29/2008 6:24 AM | Add Comment. Case Studies in SCT by Dr. Molnar ...blog.stemcellsblog.com/International Stem Cell Corporation Blog
International Stem Cell Reports Excellent Preliminary Results for Skin Rejuvenation ... International Stem Cell Corporation Receives Third $1M Tranche under a ...intlstemcell.blogspot.com/California Stem Cell Report
The Niche, a stem cell blog by Monya Baker of Nature magazine, with commentary ... Stem Cell Battles -- a blog written by patient advocate Don C. Reed ...californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/

Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.
Properties
The classical definition of a stem cell requires that it possess two properties:
- Self-renewal - the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state.
- Potency - the capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types. In the strictest sense, this requires stem cells to be either totipotent or pluripotent - to be able to give rise to any mature cell type, although multipotent or unipotent progenitor cells are sometimes referred to as stem cells.
Potency definitions


- Totipotent (a.k.a omnipotent) stem cells can differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic cell types. Such cells can construct a complete, viable, organism. These cells are produced from the fusion of an egg and sperm cell. Cells produced by the first few divisions of the fertilized egg are also totipotent.Fact: date=November 2008
- Pluripotent stem cells are the descendants of totipotent cells and can differentiate into nearly all cells, i.e. cells derived from any of the three germ layers.
- Multipotent stem cells can differentiate into a number of cells, but only those of a closely related family of cells.
- Oligopotent stem cells can differentiate into only a few cells, such as lymphoid or myeloid stem cells.
- Unipotent cells can produce only one cell type, their own, but have the property of self-renewal which distinguishes them from non-stem cells (e.g. muscle stem cells).
Identification
The practical definition of a stem cell is the functional definition - a cell that has the potential to regenerate tissue over a lifetime. For example, the gold standard test for a bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) is the ability to transplant one cell and save an individual without HSCs. In this case, a stem cell must be able to produce new blood cells and immune cells over a long term, demonstrating potency. It should also be possible to isolate stem cells from the transplanted individual, which can themselves be transplanted into another individual without HSCs, demonstrating that the stem cell was able to self-renew.























