How much can stem cells do? Stem cells can do numerous things; they are the literal building blocks of all cells. Scientists take these stem cells before they become any specified cell and manipulate it to make it become their cell of choice. Stem cells are classified as two different types of cells, adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. The uses for stem cells mainly pertain to medical advancement to cure or attempt to find a cure for so far incurable diseases. There are three main points to stem cells and why they’re helpful, what stem cells do, the two types of stem cells, and the use of stem cells in medical research.

            Stem cells are unspecialized cells that act as a repair system for the body. They have the ability to become any cell in the body. Stem cells can divide and make new stem cells at an alarming rate and that is the main reason behind why scientists have taken such an interest into medical advancements with them. The functional definition of a stem cell is the ability to regenerate tissue over a lifetime. There are certain potencies of stem cells. Totipotent, Pluripotent, Multipotent, and Unipotent are four of the potencies that are truly considered stem cells. There is also Oligpotent, which is not considered a stem cell, but still potency. All of the cells obtained for stem cell research are obtained by donation, so the research is overall helpful since it gives a purpose for the disposed cells.

            The two types of stem cells are adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are matured cells that have specialized themselves to a certain degree where as embryonic stem cells can specialize into anything. They both can proliferate which means they divide and multiply rapidly. Adult stem cells are taken from tissues or organs of volunteer donors. There are very little adult stem cells in the body; therefore the scientists must use embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are derived from donated embryos. They are also given to scientists through in-vitro fertilization when a female no longer wants to keep her in-vitro fertilized eggs. When these scientists get these embryos they take them and put them on a culture-dish with certain chemicals to cultivate them. This is called cell culturing. They do this to multiply the cells for multiple uses. After several days of culturing, the cells begin to crowd the dish. When this happens, they are gently removed and separated into several freshly prepared culture dishes. The process of replating the cells is repeated many times and for many months, and is called subculturing. Each cycle of subculturing the cells is referred to as a passage. After six months or more, the original 30 cells of the inner cell mass yield millions of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells that have proliferated in cell culture for six or more months without differentiating are pluripotent and appear genetically normal are referred to as an embryonic stem cell line (NIH). The majority of stem cells researched is adult stem cells which are not controversial so the majority of research is proved beneficial.