What are stem cells?
Stem cells are considered to be the body’s “master” cells because they create all other tissues, organs, and systems in the body. The stem cells found in cord blood are the building blocks of your blood and immune system and most readily reproduce into: The Stem Cell Red Blood Cells – which carry oxygen to all the cells in the body White Blood Cells – which fight infection Platelets – which aid in clotting in the event of injury There are three sources where stem cells are commonly found and they are: • Bone Marrow • Peripheral Blood (the blood that circulates through your body) • Cord Blood The ability of cord blood stem cells to differentiate, or change into other types of cells in the body is a new discovery that holds significant promise for improving the treatment of some of the most common diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s. There are many exciting advances happening with stem cells. Right now, doctors are focusing on newborn stem cells and their potential to
Stem cells are the master cells of the body. Blood stem cells (haematopoetic stem cells) are present in cord blood. The blood stem cells are what we call unspecialised, which means they have the ability to develop into parts of the blood that the patients body requires – red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets.
A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to duplicate itself to become cells of virtually any organ and tissue of the body. Embryonic stem cells are cells extracted from the blastula, the very early embryo, that have an exceptional ability to duplicate in vitro, that is in a test tube, and to become cells of almost any tissue. Adult stem cells are cells found in an organism after birth. Until very recently, it was believed that adult stem cells could only become blood cells, bone and connective tissue. But recent developments over the past 5 years have revealed that adult stem cells have capabilities similar to embryonic stem cells.
