Stem cells

• What are stem cells?

  • Undifferentiated cells that can specialise into other cells
• What is a totipotent stem cells?

  
  

  • Can specialise into any body cell and is found in early embryos
• What is a pluripotent stem cell?

  • Can specialise into almost any body cell and is found in embryos
• What is a multipotent stem cell?

  • Can specialise into a few cells and is found in adult tissue like bone marrow and umbilical cord
• What is a unipotent stem cell?

  • Can only specialise into one type of cell and is found in adult tissue
• How are induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) made?

  • A unipotent body cell taken and the DNA is manipulated using transcription factors, this turns on all the genes so the cell is no longer specialised
• Whatbare some ethical issues to stem cell treatment?

  • Don't always work and can cause cancer
  • May need to be harvested from embryos, killing them