What are Stem Cells
You’ve probably heard about stem cells in the news and may wonder exactly what that scientific term means. Stem cells are the body’s master cells. Stem cells can renew themselves (a process called self-renewal), and they can also make a variety of other kinds of cells.
- Adult stem cells are really stem cells in specific tissues whose job is replenishing their particular tissues as needed.
- Adult stem cells also renew themselves periodically to ensure that a pool of stem cells is always available to generate specific cell types.
- Scientists have verified stem cell caches in several tissues, including bone marrow, the brain, fatty tissue, the liver, the reproductive system, skeletal muscles, skin, and teeth.
Adult stem cells are able to give rise to several kinds of cells.