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Cell potency is a cell's ability to differentiate into other cell types. [1] [2] The more cell types a cell can differentiate into, the greater its potency.Potency is also described as the gene activation potential within a cell, which like a continuum, begins with totipotency to designate a cell with the most differentiation potential, pluripotency, multipotency, oligopotency, and finally ...
In mammals, a few cells of the early embryo are induced by signals of neighboring cells to become primordial germ cells. Mammalian eggs are somewhat symmetrical and after the first divisions of the fertilized egg, the produced cells are all totipotent. This means that they can differentiate in any cell type in the body and thus germ cells.
The zygote is the earliest developmental stage. In humans and most other anisogamous organisms, a zygote is formed when an egg cell and sperm cell come together to create a new unique organism. The formation of a totipotent zygote with the potential to produce a whole organism depends on epigenetic reprogramming.
The Human Cell Atlas project, which started in 2016, had as one of its goals to "catalog all cell types (for example, immune cells or brain cells) and sub-types in the human body". [13] By 2018, the Human Cell Atlas description based the project on the assumption that "our characterization of the hundreds of types and subtypes of cells in the ...
In humans, approximately four days after fertilization and after several cycles of cell division, these cells begin to specialize, forming a hollow sphere of cells, called a blastocyst. [9] The blastocyst has an outer layer of cells, and inside this hollow sphere, there is a cluster of cells called the inner cell mass .
B: Nerve cells, an example of a cell type after differentiation. Potency specifies the differentiation potential (the potential to differentiate into different cell types) of the stem cell. [15] Totipotent (also known as omnipotent) stem cells can differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic cell types.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also known as mesenchymal stromal cells or medicinal signaling cells, are multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including osteoblasts (bone cells), chondrocytes (cartilage cells), myocytes (muscle cells) and adipocytes (fat cells which give rise to marrow adipose tissue).
For human treatment, there is a need for patient specific pluripotent cells. Generation of human ES cells is more difficult and faces ethical issues. So, in addition to human ES cell research, many groups are focused on the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). [67]