The Embryonic Stem Cells
- The
cells that form the inner cell mass of the blastocyst are called pluripotent
stem cells.
- They
have lost the ability to differentiate to all cell types needed for a complete
embryo development, but they still have the potential to differentiate to
any other cell type (up to day 14th post-fertilization).
- As
embryonic development proceeds, stem cells lose their pluripotency. In adults,
the stem cells that remain can only differentiate to cell types of the tissue
they reside. (Some recent studies seem to prove the contrary…)
Mugur Roz