Stem Cell Basics Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Why stem cells are called "stem cells”?
Stem cells are called stem cells because of the way the word 'stem' is used. A dictionary will tell you that 'stem' means the main ascending (going up) stalk of a plant. Similarly there are main cells that grow through time, a main stem from which other stems can branch out from. If you follow the origin of a particular cell backwards through its' life there are particular you will get to a point at which all the cells are essentially the same biochemically. The diagram below gives you an analogy of a tree stem and the types of cells that are derived from the main 'stem' or mother of all cells
The word 'stem' is thought to be from the old english but the word also can sometimes mean 'to stop or to slow down' (from old Norse) so it could be that stem cells tend to stop at a particular point and doesn't continue in the same direction for ever. As tem slows down and changes direction. For stem cells they tend to stop and slow down and turn into other types of cells.For a more detailed discussion, see Stem Cells: Scientific Progress and Future Research Directions
Jeon Kyung Woo/Newsis via Reuters
DISGRACED Hwang Woo Suk, whose claims to have created tailored embryonic stem cellsEnd of 2005 brought a shock to the scientific community especially to the stem cell researchers who were telling the world that stem cells holds the future in transplantation and treating many diseases when the so called pioneer in stem cell research Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, the disgraced stem cell scientist, apologized Thursday for falsifying data in his research, and prosecutors raided his home and labs to investigate work that had propelled South Korea to the top of global stem cell research before it was found to be fraudulent. "I feel so crushed and humiliated that I hardly have the energy to say I am sorry," Dr. Hwang said during a nationally televised news conference, which came two days after a panel from Seoul National University, where he had done his work, determined that both of his landmark stem cell papers were fakes. "I seek your forgiveness." Dr. Hwang's tearful apology, which he offered with 20 colleagues standing behind him, marked a grand anticlimax to his career.But he stuck to his earlier claim that most of the crucial falsifications were committed - without his knowledge - by members of his research partner, MizMedi Hospital in Seoul. MizMedi has denied his claim. In its report on Tuesday, a university panel said Dr. Hwang had never produced stem cell lines, as he claimed in two main scientific papers, published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005. His research team did create some cloned human embryos but advanced only to an early stage in a delicate procedure of extracting stem cell lines from the embryos, the panel said. On Thursday, Dr. Hwang said his team had created 101 cloned embryos by transferring nuclei of adults' body cells into human eggs, an achievement he called "still the best in the world." He said things went wrong after he handed the embryos in an early stage of development to MizMedi, which has specialists in extracting stem cell lines from fertilized eggs. When MizMedi reported to him that the hospital had also extracted stem cells from his cloned embryos, he said, "I felt my dream come true." "I 100 percent trusted what they told me," he said. "Now I believe that they completely cheated me." " Earlier Thursday, prosecutors raided his home and offices, as well as the MizMedi lab and the homes of other researchers. They confiscated computer files and other data. The investigators are looking into whether Dr. Hwang's use of government funds for his experiments violated the nation's antifraud law.sourses: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/weekinreview/15wade.html
With all these controversies building up many believe that there will be set back in stem cell research…So I thought of bringing up an compiled article starting form basics on stem cells, Types of stem cells, Does stem cells really holds the future and so on….
