adult stem cells
January 29th, 2010
For the past 40 years, adult hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells have been used for bone marrow transplants. Now, scientists have also reason to believe the adult stem cells also exist in the brain and the heart. They say that if the differentiation of adult stem cells can be controlled in the laboratory, these cells may become the basis of transplantation-based therapies.
An adult stem cell is an undifferentiated cell found among differentiated cells in a tissue or organ. It can renew itself and can differentiate to yield some or all of the major specialized cell types of the tissue or organ. The primary role of adult stem cells in a living organism is to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found.