Could it one day be possible to create totipotent stem cells from human adult tissue?
it will most likely be possible one day it is already possible to take a human fibroblast cell and reprogramme it to have stem cell properties although these stem cells are only multipotent and not totipotent as they cannot form the placenta. the problem at the moment is keeping the cells in an undifferentiated form for storage and then reprogramming them to differentiate into the type of cell that is needed. A cell needs many different stimulants and a specific sequence of gene expression to correctly differentiate into any given type of cell and not all of these are understood hence the difficulties in controlling the differentiation. Human stem cells are few and far between. most that are found in adult humans are either only unipotent or multipotent (ie can only differentiate into one or two type of cell). the only cells that are totipotent are from an embryo before the blastocyst is created, the harvesting of which is unethical in the majorty of countries and the same with multipo
