What are stem cells?
Blood cells grow in the same way as other human cells. They are developed in the bone marrow from a parent cell known as a “stem cell.” These stem cells begin to divide and mature until they are fully developed, forming all the different types of blood cells: white blood cells, platelets and red blood cells. Stem cells are usually found inside the bone marrow spaces of large bones, however, they can also travel from one bone to the other by way of the blood system. A very small percentage of the white blood cells circulating through your veins are stem cells.
Simply put, stem cells can be thought of as master cells. Youve probably heard about the controversy of embryonic stem cells in the news. Stem cells are found in human embryos, but are also found in adult tissue. Adult stem cells are most abundantly found in bone marrow. Stem cells circulate and function to replace dysfunctional cells, thus fulfilling the natural process of maintaining optimal health. StemEnhance supports the release of adult stem cells from bone marrow into circulation. The recent advances in stem cell research were listed as one of the most significant health-related stories in the past 25 years by CNN, second only to the complete mapping of the human genome. The National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) states: Research on stem cells is advancing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. This promising area of science is also leading scientists to investigate cell-based therapies to treat
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that are thought to be able to reproduce themselves indefinitely and, under the right conditions, to develop into mature cells, e.g., nerve, skin, pancreas, with specialized functions. They are found in embryos at very early stages of development (see figure) and in some adult organs, e.g., bone marrow and brain. Human embryonic stem cells were successfully grown in the laboratory for the first time in 1998 and since then have been shown to differentiate into a few different types of tissue under controlled laboratory conditions. Isolating adult stem cells is very difficult, and promoting their growth outside of the body is not yet easily accomplished. Moreover, it is not yet clear that adult stem cells are as pluripotent or versatile as embryonic stem cells, i.e., that they can be directed to become the wide variety of tissue types that embryonic stem cells can become. Nor is it clear that embryonic stem cells can be used without difficulty as source
Blood cells grow in the same way as other human cells. They are developed in the bone marrow from a parent cell known as a “stem cell.” These stem cells begin to divide and mature until they are fully developed, forming all the different types of blood cells: white blood cells, platelets and red blood cells.
