Topic 8-Stem cells (pluripotent and unipotent)

Question 1

What are pluripotent cells?

Answer 1

Pluripotent stem cells are embryonic stem cells that can differentiate into any cell type found in an embryo but are not able to differentiate into extra-embryonic cells

Question 2

Can pluripotent cells divide an unlimited number of times and replace themselves?

Answer 2

Yes

Question 3

What are pluripotent cells used for?

Answer 3

Treating human disorders

Question 4

How are Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) produced?

Answer 4

from adult somatic (anything other than a gamete) cells using appropriate protein transcription factors

Question 5

What is the function of a transcription factor in iPS production?

Answer 5

cause specific genes to be expressed which dedifferentiate a cell back to its pluripotent state

Question 6

How do cells become increasingly specialised?

Answer 6

Tissues, organs and organ systems devolp

Question 7

Why do multipotent adult stem cells lose their ability to divide?

Answer 7

Cells must differentiate and specialise to fulfil particular roles, and over these, adult cells gradually lose their ability to divide

Question 8

What is the function of multipotent stem cells?

Answer 8

small numbers of stem cells remain to produce new cells for growth, cell replacement and tissue repair- but are only able to produce a limited range of cell types

Question 9

What type of stem cells are found in the bone marrow?

Answer 9

Multipotent adult stem cells

Question 10

What are unipotent stem cells?

Answer 10

ult cells that can only differentiate into their own lineage

Question 11

Give an example of a unipotent stem cell

Answer 11

Heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) can generate new cardiomyocytes through the cell cycle to build and replace heart muscle