Shanshan wang

5/27/06

cell bio

                               Stem Cell

   Stem cells are one of the most fascinating areas in biology today. It brings us incredible possibilities of new medical treatment. Because stem cell is a very special type of cell which has the ability to develop into any different types of cell that could make up the body’s tissues and organs. They could produce more and more stem cells and other types of cells for people’s need. Stem cells are so useful that they illuminated many patients’ hope. Now, I am going to illustrate how powerful they are.

   Stem cells are different from any other kinds of cells in our body because they have the ability to divide to infinite period. Unlike muscle cells and blood cells which could not replicate themselves, stem cells are able to duplicate many times and they would last for a long time. Another property that made stem cells special is they could become cells with special functions such as the repair of the skin and to make up the tissues in lung and other organs because they are unspecialized.

There are two types of stem cells. One kind is adult stem cells. Another one is embryonic stem cells. They have different functions, characteristics and come from different places. Embryonic stem cells were first derived from mouse embryos in 1981 by two independent research groups (Evans & Kaufman and Martin). They are originated from inner mass cells of an early stage of . Those cells have the potential to grow to a variety of specialized cells, Embryonic stem cells are described as pluripotent. This character is one of the key feature of embryonic stem cells. Another feature is that they can constantly renew themselves in undifferentiated state. Using those characteristics, scientists found that those cells could treat diabetes and spinal cord injury and so on.

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  Adult stem cells were first found in the bone marrow to replenish blood cells, soon, scientists found adult stem cells in skin, brain, blood vessel and so on. Not only adults have this type of cell, but also children. They also have extremely important roles such as curing diseases, replace wounded skin.

There are a lot of differences and similarities between  and . Each type of stem cells has its own adventages and disadventages regarding potential of the cells regeneration.  can become all cell types of the body and relatively easy to grow in culture because they are . ...

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