Did you know…without specialization, you will be just a lump of cells? Part 2

Stem cells are grouped based on their level of potency. Potency is the ability to turn into a different/specialized cell.

Stem cells are grouped as totipotent, pluripotent, or multipotent based on the range of cell types they can turn into.

• Multipotent stem cells have the least potency.  They can only specialize into different cells in one lineage of cells. For example, blood cell stem cells called hematopoietic stem cells are multipotent stem cells. They can transform into different types of blood cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets but they can not transform into brain cells or skin cells. Similarly, neural stem cells are multipotent stem cells that can only form cells of the brain and spinal cord such as neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes but they cannot form blood or skin cells.

  
  

• Pluripotent stem cells can transform into all the different types of cells in the body. An example is the embryonic stem cell. Embryonic stem cell form all the cells of the embryo which eventually become a baby, except for the tissues outside the embryo such as the placenta. Another example of a pluripotent cell does not occur naturally. They are called induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS). iPS are adult cells, like skin or blood cells, that have been transformed into pluripotent cells by inducing genes or transcription factors introduced into the cells.

  
  

• Totipotent stem cells form an entire organism, including the embryo and the placenta. An example is a fertilized egg.

So, a Totipotent stem cell (think Total) gives rise to Pluripotent stem cells ( think not Placenta) which gives rise to various groups of Multipotent cells.

And there you have it!