The Difference Between Adult Stem Cells and Embryonic Stem Cells

This is Ken Aldrich.  I am Chairman of International Stem Cell Corporation and thought I’d talk for just a minute, or maybe a couple of minutes, about the different kinds of stem cells.  People are always asking, “What’s the difference between an adult stem cell and an embryonic stem cell?”   Let me try to make this as simple as possible.  Adult stem cells are those that are derived from the human body any time after the first, probably, week or two of development of the fetus in the womb. So, cells that come from cord blood, or cells that come from embryonic tissue as well as cells that come from an adult human being are all categorized as adult cells and as a result they can become certain types of cells in the body and can be changed into certain other kinds, but not all kinds.  That limits the range of diseases that you can possibly treat with adult cells; leukemia, for example, in some cases very well, you can’t treat diabetes and so on.  The second broad category is what’s called pluripotent stem cells.  These are cells that can be converted into any cell in the body.  The best known example of pluripotent stem cells are embryonic stem cells which we have all heard about in the news.  These are created from a fertilized human egg and have all of the ethical issues that people debate about, but also have the ability to become any cell in the human body.  The next category, that you haven’t heard as much about are what are called Induced Pluripo...
Source: International Stem Cell Corporation - Category: Stem Cells Authors: Tags: biotechnology health medicine parthenogenesis stem cell bank pluripotent international stem cell corporation alzheimers parkinsons leukemia vectors Source Type: podcasts