A Concise Review on the Classification and Nomenclature of Stem Cells.
Stem cell biology and regenerative medicine is a relatively young field. However, in recent years there has been a tremendous interest in stem cells possibly due to their therapeutic potential in disease states. As a classical definition, a stem cell is an undifferentiated cell that can produce daughter cells that can either remain a stem cell in a process called self-renew¬al, or commit to a specific cell type via the initiation of a differentiation pathway leading to the production of mature progeny cells. Despite this acknowledged definition, the classification of stem cells has been a perplexing notion that may often raise misconception even among stem cell biologists. Therefore, the aim of this brief review is to give a conceptual approach to classifying the stem cells beginning from the early morula stage totipotent embryonic stem cells to the unipotent tissue-resident adult stem cells, also called tissue-specific stem cells.
Ankara University Medical School of Histology and Embryology, Ankara, Turkey, Tel: +90 312 310 30 10/369 E-mail: alpcan@medicine.ankara.edu.tr.
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