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Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-implantation embryo. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization , at which time they consist of 50–150 cells.
Induced pluripotent stem cells were first generated by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi at Kyoto University, Japan, in 2006. [1] They hypothesized that genes important to embryonic stem cell (ESC) function might be able to induce an embryonic state in adult cells.
Pluripotent, embryonic stem cells originate as inner cell mass (ICM) cells within a blastocyst. These stem cells can become any tissue in the body, excluding a placenta. Only cells from an earlier stage of the embryo, known as the morula , are totipotent, able to become all tissues in the body and the extraembryonic placenta.
Embryoid bodies (EBs) are three-dimensional aggregates formed by pluripotent stem cells. These include embryonic stem cells (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) EBs are differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into embryoid bodies comprising the three embryonic germ layers. They mimic the characteristics seen in early-stage embryos.
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they can differentiate to form all cell types in the body. In vitro, embryonic stem cells can be cultured under defined conditions to keep them in their pluripotent state, or they can be stimulated with biochemical and physical cues to differentiate them to different cell types.
Pluripotency in EpiSCs is essentially different from that of embryonic stem cells. The pluripotency of EpiSCs is primed pluripotency: primed to differentiate into specific cell lineages. Naïve pluripotent stem cells (e.g. ESC) and primed pluripotent stem cells (e.g. EpiSC) not only sustain the ability to self-renew but also maintain the ...
Scientists in China have manipulated embryonic stem cells to create laboratory mice with two male parents that managed to live to adulthood - though with significant developmental abnormalities ...
Thus, embryonic stem cells are likely to be easier to isolate and grow ex vivo than adult stem cells. [36] Embryonic stem cells divide more rapidly than adult stem cells, potentially making it easier to generate large numbers of cells for therapeutic means. In contrast, adult stem cell might not divide fast enough to offer immediate treatment. [36]