Introduction: The first question that comes to your mind after opening this article is, What a Stem Cell is?
The stem cell is the mother of all cells and has the ability to transform into all cells in the
body. These cells have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into all types of cells,
including blood, heart, nerve and cartilage cells. Also, they are effective in the reconstruction
and repair of different tissues of the body after damage and injury, and they can be
transplanted into the damaged tissues where most of their cells have been lost, and replace the
damaged cells and repair and fix the defects in that tissue. Due to the unique ability of stem
cells, these cells are an attractive topic in biology and medical sciences today. Also, research
in this field has increased our knowledge about how an organ grows and develops from a
single cell, and more importantly, it has helped to understand the mechanism of replacement
of healthy cells with damaged cells. In the following, you will get to know the different topics
of stem cells.
Methods: According to the previous researches and the experiments that we have done, in addition to
using these cells to treat diseases and draw and renew tissues, stem cell technology has also
been focused on the production of these cells in the past years. The main sources of stem cells
in humans include bone marrow, umbilical cord, dental pulp, some fatty tissues and placenta.
The mechanism that determines which cell differentiates can be extrinsic or completely
intrinsic, for example, in hematopoietic stem cells, this mechanism is extrinsic in the sense
the result of division that two daughter cells, the cell that is related to the bone cell (seoplast),
remains undifferentiated.As we have said, some mechanistic cells are introgressive. In these
types of stem cells, when the two daughter cells are not yet completely separated, proteins are
transferred to one of them and the fate of the cell leads to differentiation
The research that have been carried out on the basic characteristics of stem cells have led to
the creation of theories about how stem cells are made from differentiated cells. Recent
research in molecular biology has shown that pluripotent stem cells have two main
characteristics; first, the chromatin structure in their nucleus is not compact. Second, a
specific balance between transcription factors and their chromatin structure affectsthe gene
expression of transcription factors.
In diseases in which cells undergo abnormal apoptosis or malfunction over time or are lost
due to an attack by the immune system, the use of stem cells will realize new therapeutic
horizons. The research we have done so far shows that stem cells have effectively treated
many diseases. Such as Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes, Alzheimer's, stroke and heart
disease, liver disease, cornea treatment, diseases such as paralysis, and treatment of oral and
dental diseases are effective, and some are in the laboratory stage.
Results: Omnipotent stem cells are cells that, in addition to the ability of self-regeneration, can not
only create all the differentiated cells in the body but are also able to form the cells that form
the extra-embryonic membranes, including amnion, yolk sac, and produce pairs. Only the egg cell itself and the cells of the three- to four-day-old embryo are omnipotent;
that is, they can create not only the embryo but also extra-embryonic tissues such as the
placenta. But after this stage, only pluripotent cells are seen in the embryo. So far, there is no
successful report that it is possible to multiply and increase the number of pluripotent stem
cells in the laboratory environment. Still, they can be maintained for a short period of time in
the laboratory environment. In contrast, other types of stem cells (including omnipotent and
multipotent) can be grown and propagated in a laboratory environment.
Cells that have the ability to differentiate into several cells that are close to each other from
family cells are called multipotent. Like cells in differentiated tissues, cells in different
tissues (nerve, skin, etc.) of adults are included in this category.
Unipotent cells only have the ability to make one differentiated cell, such as B lymphocytes,
which only can become plasma cells.
Conclusion: Stem cells are divided into embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and umbilical cord blood
stem cells based on their characteristics.
Embryonic stem cells: From the internal cell mass of a 14-16-day-old fetus, it is able to make
all the cells and tissues of a complete person,
Cells that are separated from different tissues of an adult after birth. Somatic stem cells are
present in different body tissues after the stages of fetal development and throughout life. By
dividing and differentiating, they replace dead cells and repair damaged tissues. Most adult
stem cells are pluripotent or unipotent.
Today, it has been proven that stem cells are able to treat a wide range of chronic and acute
diseases. Many types of research have been conducted in the field of using stem cells to treat
diseases such as Parkinson's, heart diseases, liver diseases, diabetes, Muscular dystrophy,
spinal cord injuries, and stroke.
This is a brief summary of the vast topic of tissue engineering and stem cells, although the
material collected in this article was a very small part of this field.(Introduction to Stem Cells;
Do You Know the 5 Types of Stem Cells? | BioInformant; Moradi and Baharvand; LAFZI et
al.; All Things Stem Cell » Embryonic Stem Cells)