• Question: Apparently, stem cells are the strongest cells because they can turn into anything. Is this true?

    Asked by cookiejayden to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 19 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi again cookiejayden,
      I dunno if I would call them the strongest cells (as you can upset them quite easily!) however I guess I would call them the most “capable” since the do have that capacity to turn into any other cell type. Does that answer your question?

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Stem cells can become any type of cell. A fertilised egg is a stem cells which can make every cell in the body plus the placenta and embryonic stem cells can make every cell in the body except the placenta. This makes them incredibly important because without them life wouldn’t develop very far but they are quite fragile and embryonic stem cells need quite a lot of TLC. Adult stem cells are a bit more robust and don’t need quite so much looking after.

      I think it’s important to say that all cells are important because they all have a specific purpose but stem cells have a special function because they are needed to make sure there are these specialised cells in the first place.

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I also think strongest is the wrong word for embryonic stem cells because they are quite hard to grow in the lab without them differentiating into other cell types. They can turn into anything which makes them very useful, but that isn’t the same as strong.

      Maybe the strongest cells are muscle cells :p Sorry, that’s a bad joke, I guess…

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