Stem cells are a type of cells that have the ability to differentiate into specialized cell types. There are two main sources where these cells can come from: first the embryos formed during blastocyst (a phase of embryological development) from there comes the embryonic stem cells. The other source is the adult tissue, usually the bone marrow, and gives adult stem cells. The function of adult stem cells is that they can divide and form more stem cells or self-renew so they can repair the damaged ones. These kinds of stem cells are also known as “body’s repair mechanism” a name from where we can deduce many things. In the other hand the embryonic stems cell’s function is that they can become any kind of cell type, also when this kind of cell is mature it can function as neurons, muscles, bone, blood and more.
Everything has pros and cons and stem cells are not the exception. The pros of stem cells are mostly used in the medical field like in therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicine. It also helps discovering treatments and cures of diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer. Stem cells also help to test a lot of drugs and medicine and that helps the animals. Other advantage of using stem cell is that as it helps to treat a disease and as the patient’s organism wouldn’t reject its own cells, then the risk would be reduced. The more used is the regenerative medicine and is really good and safe for all the patients that require this.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-stem-cell-research.html http://www.arsmedical.info/stem-cells/what-are-stem-cells-.html http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/stem_cell/
http://www.sumanasinc.com/scienceinfocus/sif_stemcells.html