Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Umbilical stem cell vs fetal stem cell research?

Ok, first, "fetal" stem cells are actually embryonic stem cells taken during or before the eight cell stage of the embryo. They are not taken from a fully formed little baby. Umbilical cord cells are being used and the president voted to fund that research. The problem is that the umbilical cells can't be used in as many ways as the embryonic cells. Embryonic cells are totipotent, meaning they can differentiate into ANY cell type. Cord cells are, for the most part, pluripotent, meaning they can only differentiate into some types of cells.

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