Priority Health: Stem Cells

Recently, doctors in Illinois implanted a windpipe into a 2-year-old girl.

Hanna Warren's new trachea is made of plastic fibers and her own stem cells.

Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into some or many different cell types in the body.

They usually serve as a repair system.

Theoretically, they can also divide without limit to replenish other cells for as long as the person or animal is still alive.

When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell - muscle cell, red blood cell, brain cell, etc.

Stem cells have potential in many different areas of health and medical research.

They help scientists understand how cells transform into the many different types of cells needed to live.

Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to problems that occur somewhere in this transforming process.

There are several sources of stem cells.

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Priority Health: Stem Cells