a cura di:  Maria Vittoria Benvenuto e Angela Deodato

con la collaborazione di: prof.ssa Mary Facciolo

Stem cells are mother cells whose  characteristic is their ability to self-renew or multiply while maintaining their potential to become any type of cell in the body.
There are different types of stem cells such us: embryonic cells, fetal stem cells and adult stem cells. The embryonic cells lie within the blastocyst. These have the capacity to divide and mantain their ability to create all types of cell. The fetal stem cells, or progenitor cells, are located in the tissues of a human fetus. These have the characteristics of the tissues they are taken from. The adult stem cells are obtained from some tissues of the body and they are used as clinically useful cells. Recent research has enabled to derive pluripotent stem cells from adult human skin cells. These cells are called induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC). The stem cells can be used to replace drugs and toxins and understanding birth defects.