What’s the difference between adult stem cells and ES cells?
Adult stem cells are partially specialized cells that can turn into a limited number of body cells and tissues. For example, blood-forming adult stem cells in bone marrow can turn into some types of blood-related cells. Scientists have been conducting research with adult stem cells for over 50 years and have developed a number of medical therapies that use adult stem cells, such as bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia. ES cell research is a new frontier. Human ES cells were first isolated in 1998 and SCNT was first performed with human cells in 2001. Unlike adult stem cells, ES cells are “pluripotent,” meaning that they are totally unspecialized cells that have the potential to turn into and regenerate any type of cell or tissue in the human body. Thus, the overwhelming majority of medical experts, medical organizations, disease foundations and patient groups agree that ES cells could provide cures for many diseases and injuries that have not been cured and probably cannot be cure
