| What is cellular differentiation? | A process by which a cell expresses certain genes to produce proteins which are characteristic for that type of cell |
| What are stem cells? | unspecialised animal cells that can divide to self renew and/or differentiate |
| What two types of stem cells are there | embryonic - from an embryo
Tissue (adult) stem cells - from tissues |
| are embryonic stem cells multipotent or pluripotent? | Pluripotent |
| Are tissue stem cells multipotent or pluripotent? | Multipotent |
| Why are embryonic stem cells pluripotent? | Cells in the very early embryo can differentiate into all the cell types that make up the organism
All the genes in embryonic stem cells can be switched on, so they can differentiate into any cell type |
| What are tissue stem cells involved in? | the growth, repair and renewal of cells found in that tissue |
| why are tissue stem cells multipotent? | they can differentiate into all the types of cell found in a particular tissue type |
| name some therapeutic uses of stem cells | the repair of damaged and diseased organs or tissues such as
the repair of corneas - damaged by chemical attack
regeneration of damaged skin, producing a skin graft for burn victims
bone marrow transplant to treat patients with blood cancer, eg leukemia |
| what must happen to stem cells from the embryo in order to be used for therapeutic purposes? | They can self renew under the right conditions in the lab for these purposes |
| what does stem cell research provide information on? | how cell processes such as cell growth, differentiation and gene regulation work. |
| What do research uses of stem cells involve? | stem cells being used as model cells to study how diseases develop
stem cells being used for drug testing |
| why is use of embryonic stem cells an ethical issue? | stem cells can offer effective treatments for disease and injury, however it involves the destruction of embryos |
| What are the unspecialised cells in plants? | meristems |
| define meristems | regions of unspecialised cells which can divide to self renew and/or differentiate into many cell types |
