Stem Cells

What are stem cells considered to be in the human body?

The building blocks of the human body.

What will the stem cells inside an embryo develop into?

All the different cells, tissues, and organs in the foetus's body.

When an embryo divides what can it make?

One of the 220 different cells in the human body

Endless self-renewal

A stem cell can divide endlessly to produce more stem cells.

Potency

The capacity to differentiate along different pathways to become specialized.

Embryonic stem cells

Found only in early embryo tissues up until about 3-5 days after fertilisation

What are not embryonic stem cells?

Cord blood stem cells

What is a single cell embryo?

Totipotent

5-7 day embryo - embryonic stem (ES) cells

Pluripotent

Adult stem cells

They can be found in juvenile (after day 5 embryo) and adult tissues in the brain, heart, bone marrow, lungs and other organs for repair

Cord blood stem cells

Multipotent

Placental stem cells

Multipotent

Adult stem cells

Multipotent

What do embryonic stem cells change from?

Totipotent to pluripotent

Totipotent

Stem cells which can form all types of cells of the body

Where are totipotent only found in?

Very early-stage embryo (5 days, morula)

Pluripotent

Can form cells of the body (early, embryo up to 7 days, blastocyst)

Multipotent

Can form a specialised lineage of cells that give rise to a tissue or organ

Where are multipotent only found?

In stem cell niches in an adult organism (after day 7)

What stages indicate a cell's totipotent and pluripotent nature?

Single cell embryo is totipotent, while a 5-7 day embryo has embryonic stem cells which are pluripotent.

How do adult stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells in terms of potential?

Adult stem cells are more restricted in potential and can only differentiate into several types.