• Question: What are stem cells?

    Asked by Andrea to Eoin, Ester, Natasha, Paul, Tom on 15 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Natasha Myhill

      Natasha Myhill answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      A stem cell is a cell that has the potential to differentiate into lots of different cell types. It is what we all start off life as – embryonic stem cells. However, even as adults we have stem cells in the body living in different tissues. They help to regenerate tissues when cells die and new cells need to be made. Adult stem cells are a bit different from embryonic stem cells because they cant make every cell type – they are more restricted. For example, a haematopoietic stem cell (blood stem cell) can give rise to every type of cell found in the blood.

    • Photo: Eoin McKinney

      Eoin McKinney answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      THey are cells that retain the ability to turn into other cell types. They hang around in our bodies the whole of our lives and can turn into new cells if needed. For example if cells get old or damaged or stop working properly they need to be replaced and stem cells can do this. They can also go wrong and turn into cancer cells which are a type of abnormal stem cell

    • Photo: Ester Gil Vazquez

      Ester Gil Vazquez answered on 17 Nov 2017:

      Yes, not much more to add. We always talk about cells dividing and growing as if that was the normal thing for cells to do in our bodies all the time. However, as adults, most of our cells don’t divide – they can’t! only small populations of cells have the capacity of dividing and generating more cells, and these are the so called stem cells. It is thanks to these cells that tissues can regenerate to some extent (like when we cut ourselves and the wound heals).

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