5 Amazing Facts about Stem Cells
Stem cells are found in all multicellular organisms and are undifferentiated cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and also divide to form new cells. Embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells are two types of stem cells. There has been a lot of research into stem cells and new uses for stem cells have been found out. Also stem cells have been useful in curing a lot of diseases that did not have a cure in the past. Here are some amazing facts about stem cells that will blow your mind away.
1. Diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis, stroke and traumatic brain injury repair, learning defects, spinal cord injury repair, heart infarction, cancer, baldness, missing teeth, hearing, vision, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and wound healing are some of the diseases and disorders that can be possibly cured using stem cells. This is exactly why so much money is being poured into stem cell research.
2. The unique properties of stem cells are what makes them so special and why a lot of research is going into it. Three of the unique characteristics of stem cells are that they are undifferentiated, they can transform into specialized cells, like a nerve cell or a heart cell and they can divide to form a lot of other cells.
3. Stem cells can be found in different places in the body. They are categorized into different types such as embryonic stem cells which are extracted from embryos and are thought to hold the most potential because these cells can give rise to virtually any specialized cell in the human body. The adult stem cells are present in adult tissues such as the bone marrow, brain and blood but are limited in potential relative to embryonic stem cells. The cord blood stem cells are derived from cord blood and thought to hold enormous potential in treating disease.
