Stem cell

Article By:

Wang, Chen Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Last reviewed:January 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.800100

Show previous versions

• Stem cells, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Any of the cells that have the ability to self-replicate and to give rise to mature cells. The concept of stem cells (Fig. 1) was originally based on renewing tissues. Many adult tissues, including the skin, blood, and intestines, consist of mostly mature and short-lived cells that must be continuously replaced. Stem cells were postulated as the source of the self-renewal. In the early 1960s, Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till provided the first experimental proof of the existence of stem cells in the blood system. They revealed that a type of cell in bone marrow possesses the capacity to replicate itself and to differentiate into various lineages of mature blood cells. Self-renewal, together with the capacity for differentiation, defined the properties of stem cells. This definition is generally used in stem cell biology today. See also: Cell (biology); Cell biology; Cell differentiation; Cell lineage

The content above is only an excerpt.