Stem cells

• Undifferentiated cells are called stem cells.
• Stem cells can divide and produce lots more undifferentiated cells. They can differentiate into different types of cell, depending on what instructions they're given.
• Stem cells are found in human embryos, they have the potential to turn into any kind of cell.
• Adults also have stem cells , but they are only found in certain places such as bone marrow. Unlike embryonic stem cells they can't turn into any type of cell, only certain ones such blood cells.
• Stem from embryonic and bone marrow can be grown in a lab to produce clones and made to differentiate into specialised cells to use in medicine or reasearch.
• Medicine already uses adult stem cells to cure disease. For example, stem cells transferred from the bone marrow of a healthy person can replace faulty blood cells in the patient who receives them.
• Embryonic stem cells could also be used to replace faulty cells in sick people- you could make insulin-producing cells for people with diabetes, nerve cell from people paralysed by spinal injuries etc.
• In therapeutic cloning, an embryo could be made to have the same genetic information as the patient. This means that the stem cells produced from it would also contain the same genes and so wouldn't be rejected by the patients body if used to replace faulty cells.
• There are risks of using stem cells in medicine. For example stem cells grown in a lab may become contaminated with a virus which could be carried on, making the patient even sicker.
• Stem cells can produce indentical plants.
• In plants, stem cells are found in the meristems.
• Throughout the plants entire life cells in the meristem tissues can differentiate into any type of cell.
• stem cells found in the meristem of plants can be used to produce clones of whole plants quickly and cheaply, they can also be used to grow more of a rare species to prevent them being wiped out. Stem cells can also be used to grow crops of identical plants that.have features of which farmers desire.