Developments in Stem Cell Research

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Developments in Stem Cell Research

Before the formation of organs , all embryos are composed of a collection of cells with the capacity to originate many different tissues and organs . Stem cells have a plural potentiality and are termed pluripotent . Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs ) have a remarkable plasticity (Kiessling Anderson 9 . These cells are derivatives of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst : which is a pre-implantation embryo developed five days after fertilization (Colombo et al 825 . In essence the blastocyst

contains all the necessary developmental material for a complete human being . As growth and development progresses , the cells of the inner cell mass differentiate into three germinal layers from which tissue restricted stem cells originate and subsequently tissues and organs

The reason for the high degree of optimism with regard to the potentiality of embryonic stem cell research are basically hinged on the fact that embryonic stem cells have an indefinite replicative capacity coupled to their capacity to differentiate into different somatic cell types in the human body . In a theoretical sense , human embryonic stem cells (hESCs ) can be therapeutically used in the generation of any possible cell type in the body or tissue hence serving as an indefinite source of cells , tissues or organs for the treatment of every possible degenerative disease . Moreover , if the derivation of hESCs is coupled with the novel technologies of nuclear transfer in addition to the mammalian cloning technology , the treatment of patients with genetically identical cloned...