Stem Cell Therapy

A stem cell is a cell that has two defining properties that distinguish it from most other cells in the body: first, the ability to divide and renew itself over long periods, sometimes throughout an entire lifetime, and second, the ability to differentiate -- that is, to develop -- into one or more specialised, mature cell types under the right conditions. Because of this dual capacity for self-renewal and differentiation, stem cells act as a kind of internal repair and replenishment system for many tissues in the body.

Stem cells are broadly grouped by how many different cell types they are capable of becoming, a property referred to as their potency. Embryonic stem cells, derived from a very early-stage embryo, are described as pluripotent -- meaning they retain the capacity to differentiate into almost any one of the many specialised cell types found in the body (though not, on their own, into an entire new organism), because at that very early developmental stage the embryo's cells have not yet committed to any specific tissue fate. Adult stem cells, sometimes called somatic stem cells, are found in specific locations within the fully developed body -- notably in bone marrow, which continuously produces the various types of blood cells, but also in tissues such as skin and the lining of the gut. Adult stem cells are generally more limited in their potency than embryonic stem cells; they are typically described as multipotent, meaning each adult stem cell population is normally restricted to differentiating into only the particular range of specialised cell types relevant to the tissue it resides in (for example, bone marrow stem cells differentiating into the various types of blood cells), rather than into any cell type in the body. …