What are Cell Stems?
All 50 or so trillion cells in the human body originated from a single cell at the time of fertilization. As cells divide, they have the potential to either become stem cells or specialized cells – e.g. red blood cells, muscle tissue, skin cells. As an embryo develops it is these specialized cells which make up the many parts of the human body. Stem cells are simply cells which have not yet been induced (assigned) a special function. Are there different types of cell stems? Yes, there are 2 main types of stem cells – embryonic and adult. Adult stem cells Adult cells are the ones which exist in our bodies at this time and are used to replace the cells which die off or are damaged each day. An example of these would be the adult cell stems found in bone marrow which develop into and replace dying blood cells. Adult cell stems are restricted in that they have the physiology to develop only into a specialized group of cells – e.g. blood cells. Embryonic stem cells Embryonic stem cells whic
