Question

Compare and contrast adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells, including a detailed description of the role of each kind of stem cell in humans.

Answer 1

There are 2 groups of stem cells:

1)Embyonic

2) Adult stem cells

embryonic stem cell	Adult stem cell
They are pluripotent ie they can differentiate into any type of cell	They can differentiate in a limited way ie according to their tissue of origin.They are generally regarded as multipotent.
Can be grown easily in culture	Difficult to grow in culture
They are found in the blastocyst stage, and are found in unused embryos.	Adult stem cells have been found in the brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver, and other (although not all) organs and tissues.They are there to replensih dying or damaged tissues.

Embryonic stem cells:

These cells have a capacity for prolonged undifferentiated proliferation in culture.In vitro , they can develop into specific specialised somatic cells like cardiomyocytes,neuronal,hematopoetic,skeletal muscle, smooth muscle.In vivo, they are normally short-lived and soon disappear from the developing embryo as they give rise to specialized progenitor cells of the three germ layers.

Adult stem cells:

An adult stem cell , like any other stem cell , has 2 main characteristics:They can make identical copies of themselves for a long period of tme. , which is useful for cell renewal.They can also give rise to mature cell types , with characteristic morphologies and specialisation.

The adult stem cell typically forms an intermediate cell before developing a complete mature , differentiated cell.This intermediate cell is called a progenitor cell.

The primary function of an adult stem cell is to maintain homeostasis ie a steady state functioning of the cell.