Adult Stem Cells Flashcards, test questions and answers

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What is Adult Stem Cells?

Adult stem cells are a type of cell that can be found in the bodies of adults and are capable of dividing and producing new types of mature cells. Adult stem cells have been used in medical research and treatments for over two decades, primarily to replace or repair damaged tissues. They have been studied extensively for their potential to utilize tissue-specific stem cell repair methods for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and many others.Adult stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells in several important ways. Unlike embryonic stem cells which are pluripotent (capable of becoming any type of cell), adult stem cells are multipotent (capable only of forming certain types of specialized tissue). This means that adult stem cell therapies can only be used to treat specific diseases or conditions related to the particular type of tissue that is derived from the adult stem cell. Additionally, unlike embryonic stem cells which can remain undifferentiated indefinitely, adult stem cells must eventually differentiate into a specific cell type before they can be utilized in a therapy. Finally, adultstemcellsare much easier to obtain than embryonicstemcells; theycanbe harvested from an individual’s own body without any ethical considerations or risk factors associated with harvesting them from another person’s body. The potential applications for utilizing adultstemcelltherapiesare considerableand include notonlytreatingdiseases but also repairing damaged organs or tissues due to injury or aging. In addition, researchers believe that these therapeutic approaches may also hold promiseforregenerating organs such as the heart and brain after damage has occurred due to stroke or other traumas. As the field matures and researchers gain further understanding about how these therapies work on a molecular level, there may be even more possibilities discovered for utilizing adultstemcellsto treat chronic conditions such as blindness and paralysis with greater success rates than with traditional therapies currently available today.