Topic 8 - Totipotent Cells Flashcards
What is a totipotent cells?
Stem cells that can differentiate into any type of cell found in the body and extra-embryonic cells such as those forming the placenta. Found in the early embryo.
What is differentiation?
The process by which unspecialised cells become specialised to form specific tissues and organs.
What is selective gene expression?
Certain genes are switch on and other are switched off.
What are stem cells?
Undifferentiated cells capable of self-renewal: continuously dividing to produce more stem cells. Differentiation: giving rise to specialised cell types.
What is a pluripotent stem cells?
Found in the later stages of the embryo and can differentiate into many types of specialised cels, but not extra-embryonic cells.
What is a multi-potent stem cells?
Found in adult tissues and a differentiate into a limited range of cell types.
What is a unipotent stem cells?
Found in specific tissue and can differentiate into only one type of cell.
What are the ethical considerations of using stem cells for treatment?
Embryonic stem cells: using embryos to obtain pluripotent stem cells raises ethical concerns about the destruction of embryos.
Adult stem cells: an alternative that avoids ethical issues but has a limited range of differentiation compared to embryonic stem cells.
What treatment can pluripotent stem cells in medicine?
Spinal cord injuries
Heart disease
Type 1 diabetes
Burn treatment
Neurodegenerative diseases
What are iPS cells?
Induced pluripotent stem cells.
iPS cells are artificially created pluripotent cells generated from unipotent cells.
How are iPS cells produced?
This process involves reprogramming genes to make the unipotent cells behave like pluripotent stem cells.
What are the iPS cells?
- Avoids ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells.
- Can be derived from the patient’s own cells, reducing the risk of rejection.
