Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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oups according to how many different types of cells they have the potential to produce. A fertilized egg is considered totipotent, meaning that its potential is total; it gives rise to all the different types of cells in the body (NIH 2-5). Pluripotent stem cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body except those needed to develop a fetus (NIH 14). Stem cells that can give rise to multiple different cell types are generally called multipotent (NIH 3-4).
Embryonic stem cells are technically called totipotent, and they produce all types of tissue. This is the very early stage of a recently fertilized egg and has only about eight cells. The inner cells, called pluripotent, can become almost cell types of cells and are taken from an early embryo cells. Embryonic cells develop because they are harvested or collected from the very early stages of a fertilized egg called a blastocyst, which is a very
young embryo that contains 200 to 250 cells and is shaped like a hollow sphere. The stem cells themselves are the cells in the blastocyst that ultimately would develop into a person or animal.
The National Institutes of Health says that adult stem cells are typically called multipotent cells such as bone marrow cells that can produce a wide range of different blood cells (7). There is continuing research to see into if it is possible to make multipotent cells into pluripotent types. Adult stem cells develop because they are

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collected from limited number of cell types in the body. NIH also says that they are derived from the umbilical cord and placenta or from blood, bone marrow, and skin (7).
Medical researchers are interested in using stem cells to repair or replace damaged body tissues because stem cells are less likely than other cells to be rejected by the immune system when they are implanted in the body. Embryonic stem cells have the capacity to develop into every type of tissue found in an adult; adult stem cel...