Lec 21: Stem Cell Therapy for Hereditary Diseases

Question 1

What are the distinguishing characteristics of pluripotent stem cells (embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells)?

Answer 1

• can divide indefinitely (self-renewal)

- can produce all types of cells in body (pluripotent)

Question 2

What are the distinguishing characteristics of tissue-specific stem cells?

Answer 2

• can self-renew
• have a more limited differentiation potential than ES or iPS cells
• can only make the kinds of cells found in a specific type of tissue
• some have multipotency (can generate all the types of cells in that specific tissue)

Question 3

What are the distinguishing characteristics of transit amplifying precursor cells?

Answer 3

• can divide a limited number of times

- can produce only one or a few types of cells in any specific tissue

Question 4

What are distinguishing characteristics of differentiated cells (somatic cells)?

Answer 4

No longer dividing or have limited capacity to divide

Question 5

What is transdifferentiation?

Answer 5

also called direct linage conversion; uses gene transfer to convert one type of somatic cell into another type of somatic cell, rather than going through iPS intermediary