induced pluripotent stem cells vs embryonic stem cells

A few have even been approved in different countries.Ī cautionary note. There are hundreds of clinical trials ongoing with multipotent stem cells so there is real promise here. Many things that are called adult stem cells like mesenchymal stem/stromal cells or MSCs, may often not contain almost any stem cells, depending on how they were processed. Where they do exist, pure adult stem cells are hard to isolate. There is still some debate about whether the heart has true stem cells in it or not. While there was debate in the past about whether the adult human brain has stem cells, I’m convinced that it does based on numerous research papers, over the past decade especially. These are present to help maintain the tissues and in some cases respond to injury by making more cells. It is thought that most if not all of the different organs and tissue types in the human body have some population of multipotent stem cells. Multipotent stem cells include almost every kind of adult stem cell. In a nutshell, multipotency means being able to make more than one kind of cell. These are sometimes called oligopotent, but we stem cell biologists actually don’t use that term almost ever. Multipotent stem cells make up just about all other kinds of stem cells beyond the first two types. The next category of stem cells is kind of a grab bag of cells that have what we call “multipotency”.

Some of the cells are multipotent stem cells. Human MSCs or mesenchymal cells grown in the Knoepfler lab. I expect many more trials in coming years. These include trials for diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s and vision loss. PSCs are involved in a number of clinical trials. While you’re watching please consider subscribing to The Stem Cell Channel on YouTube. You might enjoy my video on embryonic stem cells below too. I think that the best example of pluripotent stem cells is iPS cells, but embryonic stem cells are a good exemplar too. The two most well-known types of PSCs are embryonic stem cells (see a primer on them here) and induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells. They also cannot make totipotent stem cells. However, unlike totipotent cells, PSCs cannot form placenta and umbilical cord. They can form the entire embryo of a developing organism. What are pluripotent stem cells? These are the next most powerful stem cells and are sometimes called PSCs. IPS cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, Knoepfler lab, stained for TRA-1-60, an ES cell marker. Pluripotent stem cells are a tad more limited in potential. What are totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells? See an image of totipotent stem cell-containing human embryos above.įinally, these cells can also make the placenta and umbilical cord that are so important for development. The best example of totipotent cells is the fertilized egg or zygote (1-cell embryo). They can also make the entire embryo that will develop into the final organism, whether it is a person, an elephant or a mouse. So, for example, totipotent stem cells can make more of themselves or pluripotent stem cells. Totipotent stem cells can make any other kind of cell in the body. Ironically despite all that power, there aren’t any therapies that I know of being developed from these cells in clinical trials yet. These cells got the name “totipotent” because that in a sense means “all powerful”. I have a whole post on totipotent stem cells so I encourage you to dig into that. In terms of totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells, the early embryos shown here are totipotent, while later the ICM has pluripotent stem cells in it.

An arrow in the inset higher magnification view of the hatched blastocyst (breaking out of the zona pellucida) indicates the inner cell mass (ICM) that can produce embryonic stem cells when cultured. Photomicrograph of early human embryo development. Here at The Niche is a great place to learn about these stem cell types because my own lab, the Knoepfler lab at UC Davis School of Medicine, routinely grows stem cells. The distinctions are important both for understanding our own biology and for stem cell clinical trials. Too often we hear about “stem cells” as though they were all pretty much the same, but they in reality come in those three main types. What’s in this articleĭefinition of stem cells | Totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells | Pluripotent stem cells | Multipotent stem cells | The best kind of stem cell | References Definition of stem cells The goal of today’s post is to help you learn and be clear on the differences. What’s the difference between multipotent stem cells, totipotent stem cells, and pluripotent stem cells?

Induced pluripotent stem cells vs embryonic stem cells