What does it mean for stem cells to...

[happybunny]

...remain unspecialized or become specialized? I read and article about stem cells and there's this section that I don't really understand."Therefore, in order to develop such treatments scientists are intensively studying the fundamental properties of stem cells, which include:

1. determining precisely how stem cells remain unspecialized and self renewing for many years; and
2. identifying the signals that cause stem cells to become specialized cells. "

So what unspecialized and specialized cells mean? And if you can, can you also explain briefly what stem cells are and capable of?
Thank you. :]

[prince_henry]

OK I'm no expert but heres my best shot, stem cells are cells that can be made to form any part of the human body so if someone needed a new kidney they would get matching tissue stem cells that are at that point specialised meaning they have not been given the code to form into something. this code can now be given to the stem cells by us in a lad once we give them the code to form a kidney the cells are then specialised cells coz they now have to code to form into something, stem cells are like the building blocks of a human body, you could have a load of stem cells, feed into the cells your full DNA code and the stem cells would form a baby that was your perfect clone

[Helen M]

Basically, stem cells are cells which have the potential to become any of the many different types of cells found in the body, for example muscle cells or liver cells, which do different jobs.
Therefore, stem cells are referred to as 'unspecialised' because they are not 'tied down' to one fate. However, once they have undergone the process of developing into a specific type of cell, they no longer have the ability to change back into such a flexible state; hence, once they have developed into e.g. a liver cell, they are referred to as 'specialised' because they are now specialised to perform the specific function of that cell, and cannot e.g. turn from a liver cell into a nerve cell.
Stem cells are the subject of such intense research at present because their ability to be cultured as unspecialised cells in theory means we could grow them in the lab and then make specific cells 'on demand', for example we could make new nerve cells from them and transplant them into patients to regrow damaged nerve tissue. However, this is not possible at present because
a) we do not yet understand how to make stem cells grow into the tissues that we want because we do not know yet what induces the change into specialised cells
b) the limited capacity of adult-derived stem cells to divide and retain their flexibility regarding their fate makes any possible therapeutic use awkward and difficult, while embryonic stem cells, which divide and retain their lack of specialisation indefinitely, require the destruction of the embryo in order to be obtained, which is the subject of ongoing fierce moral debate

[jim G]

Unspecialized Stem cells are basically blank body cells, They have the potential to become any cell from skin cells to bone cells. They are the building blocks of the body.

Specialised Stem cells are similar but have been told what they are going to be.

The reason research is being carried out on them so much is because they could be used to rebuild your body such as replace cancerous cells.

[freedomisbetter]

When the unspecialized cell reproduces to form another unspecialized cell, the new cells are identical to the mother cell and there are no ageing, but after an unknown signal tells the cells to become specialised, the cell stars to ageing after each division. After 30 mitosis (divisions) the specialised cell will die.. If the signal don't occurs, the cell would reproduce forever.

The stem (unspecialised ) cell can be used to produce specialised cells to form the different body organs.

[andy muso]

Your body is composed of billions of cells which all have different functions. E.g. brain cells are different in structure from bone cells because they have a different job to do. This is what is known as being specialised. Stem cells are basically cells which have not yet become specialised and are capable of becoming specialised in order to carry out whatever functions the body is need of.