Embryonic stem cells can, in theory, produce any type of tissue in large quantities. Researchers use these cells to study development and disease and, hopefully, to find treatments.
Within 6 months, the two or three dozen cells taken from a single embryo can generate millions of embryonic stem cells. That gives scientists enough cells to complete and repeat experiments and allows them to ask questions about disease that would be impossible with other kinds of cells.
Embryonic stem cells are easy to isolate and purify, at least in comparison with most tissue-specific cells, which exist in vanishingly small numbers deep within tissues. Although human embryonic stem cells can multiply in the lab for years without differentiating into more specialized cells, these cells are believed capable of forming every kind of cell in the human body, given the right conditions. (Mouse embryonic stem cells have been demonstrated to form every kind of cell in a mouse.)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
What makes embryonic stem cells special?. Nat Rep Stem Cells (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/stemcells.2007.16
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/stemcells.2007.16