• Question: Why do we need stem cells and what do they look like?

    Asked by katrina1998 to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 15 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by 13aall.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      We need stem cells to live, the cells in our body are dying and being replaced all the time, red blood cells for example live for about 120 days before they need to be replaced, which is why you make about 2 million red blood cells a second! Also your bones are being remodelled all the time by cells called osteoclasts and new bone gets made to replace that by cells called osteoblasts and these cells come from stem cells.

      To answer what they look like is harder as they look quite different in the lab to the body, but I would say the best analogy I could give is that in the lab they look a bit like a narrow fried egg. Sort of.

    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Hi katrina1998,
      I think Matt has pretty much covered it! However I would like to add that mouse embryonic stem cells look very shiny! Sort of like they have a halo when they’re very happy. If they look like that then you know you’re doing a good job growing them!

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 20 Nov 2013:

      As Matt said, we need stem cells in our body because they replace cells as they die and can help repair of an organ after injury. That’s why we have stem cells in most if not all of our organs – including our brains, hearts, intestines, muscles and bones.

      In the lab we need to study stem cells because learning more about them should allow us to find new ways to treat disease.

      I don’t know much about the adult stem cells in our bodies, but I work with embryonic stem cells so I know what they look like. Individually I guess they do look a bit like a fried egg with a big nucleus in the centre of the cell. As a group growing next to each other on a plate, they look a bit like a load of cobblestones. I have a picture that I took on my profile that can give a bit of an idea of what they look like. In my picture the nucleus is blue and something on the cell membrane has been coloured green.

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