What do embryonic stem cells do that ....?

Question

Adult stem cells don't do?

Answer 1

Some organs contain stem cells that persist throughout adult life and contribute to the maintenance and repair of those organs. Not every organ has been shown to contain stem cells, however, and generally adult stem cells have restricted developmental potential, in that their capacity for proliferation is limited and they can give rise only to a few cell types. Embryonic stem cells, by contrast, can divide almost indefinitely and can give rise to every cell type in the body, suggesting that they may be the most versatile source of cells for transplantation therapy.

Answer 2

There is no difference between embryonic and adult stem cells. ALL stem cells have the ability to become whatever type of cell it is introduced to.

Answer 3

adult stem cells can only mimic the cells which produce them, bone cells make bone stem cells and so on, for healing and regeneration. But embryonic stem cells can mimic or become any kind of tissue, those stem cells can become brain tissue, spinal chord tissue, kidney tissue, any tissue the embryonic stem cell is introduced to, it will become.

Answer 4

From what I understand, embryonic and umbilical cord stem cells have more ability to divide into differentiated cells than their adult counterparts.

Here's what wikipedia has to say:

The term Adult stem cell refers to any cell which is found in a developed organism that has two properties: the ability to divide and create another cell like itself and also divide and create a cell more differentiated than itself. Also known as somatic stem cells, they can be found in children, as well as adults. Pluripotent adult stem cells are rare and generally small in number but can be found in a number of tissues including umbilical cord blood. Most adult stem cells are lineage restricted (multipotent) and are generally referred to by their tissue origin (mesenchymal stem cell, adipose-derived stem cell, endothelial stem cell, etc.)

A great deal of adult stem cell research has focused on clarifying their capacity to divide or self-renew indefinitely and their differentiation potential. In mice, pluripotent stem cells can be directly generated from adult fibroblast cultures.

While embryonic stem cell potential remains untested, adult stem cell treatments have been used for many years to successfully treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants. The use of adult stem cells in research and therapy is not as controversial as embryonic stem cells, because the production of adult stem cells does not require the destruction of an embryo. Consequently, more US government funding is being provided for adult stem cell research.

Defining properties

The rigorous definition of a stem cell requires that it possesses two properties:
* Self-renewal - the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state.
* Unlimited potency - the capacity to differentiate into any mature cell type. In a strict sense, this requires stem cells to be either totipotent or pluripotent, although some multipotent and/or unipotent progenitor cells are sometimes referred to as stem cells.

These properties can be illustrated in vitro, using methods such as clonogenic assays, where the progeny of single cell is characterized. However, in vitro culture conditions can alter the behavior of cells, making it unclear whether the cells will behave in a similar manner in vivo. Considerable debate exists whether some proposed adult cell populations are truly stem cells.

Answer 5

make your omelette more tender, the adult ones are gamey and tough.