Fig. . Process of gene therapy XII Std Zoology Chapter XII Std Zoology Chapter Applications of Biotechnology multipotent and can act as a repair system of the body, replenishing adult tissues. The red bone marrow is a rich source of adult stem cells.
The most important and potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell based therapies. Human stem cells could be used to test new drugs. Totipotency (Toti-total) is the ability of a single cell to divide and produce all of the differentiated cells in an organism. Pluripotency (Pluri-several) refers to a stem cell that has the potential to differentiate into any of the three germ layers-ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm.
Multipotency (multi-Many) refers to the stem cells that can differentiate into various types of cells that are related. For example blood stem cells can differentiate into lymphocytes, monocytes , neutrophils etc., Oligopotency (Oligo-Few) refers to stem cells that can differentiate into few cell types. For example lymphoid or myeloid stem cells can differentiate into B and T cells but not RBC. Unipotency ( Uni- Single) refers to the ability of the stem cells to differentiate into only one cell type.
Stem cell More Stem cell Neuron Red blood corpuscles Muscle cell