Animal Stem Cells
- A stem cell is an undifferentiated cell of an organism that is capable of dividing to produce many more cells of the same type (undifferentiated stem cells)
- In addition, stem cells can also give rise to other cell types through the process of differentiation
- In animals, there are several different types of stem cell
- Embryonic stem cells are important as they help to form all of the different tissues and organs needed during development to form a whole new individual - they are totipotent
- Adult stem cells , however, are much more limited and can only differentiate to produce a few different cell types.
- Adult stem cells are predominantly used to replace cells lost through damage or to produce new cells for growth – although the bone marrow has to continually make new blood cells throughout life
Animal Stem Cells Table