For example, recently a student asked me, “Professor Knoepfler, are there any types of cells that totipotent stem cells cannot make?”Īs their name implies, totipotent stem cells are entirely potent or all-powerful from a cellular perspective. Their interest probably is piqued because these are the most powerful cells. Some students seem especially fascinated by totipotent stem cells. What are totipotent stem cells?Įvery year I give a lecture here at UC Davis School of Medicine for my medical students about stem cells. Image and caption from Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide by Paul Knoepfler. An arrow in the inset higher magnification view of the hatched blastocyst (breaking out of the zona pellucida) indicates the inner cell mass (ICM) that can produce embryonic stem cells when cultured. Photomicrograph of early human embryo development. Today’s post focuses on the question of what totipotent cells are all about and addresses more specific questions about them, including why so far there seem to be fewer clinical applications for them as compared to most other stem cell types. I’m a long-time stem cell biologist so I can give them that perspective, but this should be something they discuss primarily with their physician The answer to that is, of course, going to depend on many factors. Other times it seems what patients specifically want to know is what might be the best stem cells for their particular condition. I think they often are looking for the most powerful stem cells so perhaps they should be asking, “What are totipotent stem cells?” Sometimes patients or my students ask me, “What are the best stem cells?” what information are they looking for?
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