Stem cells have been a buzzing topic in the scientific community for some time now. As many number of researchers are in favour of Stem cell research as there are against any development related to the subject. What makes Stem cells such a hot topic among intellects? Well, we first need to understand what stem cells are, and what effect can they have on us and our lives.

In a layman’s language, stem cells are cells that are produced in our bodies which are capable of differentiating(developing into) any of the type of cells. That means, a stem cell can, under different or specific growth conditions, made to develop into a neuron(brain cell), cardiac(heart) cell, or your muscle cell or your kidney cell and so on.You can compare stem cells with a tree. A tree has a backbone,”stem” which supports all the branches,which in turn support all the leaves and flowers. A stem is from where everything originates in a tree. Similarly, our stem cells are the backbone of all the cells in our body. All other cells in our body originate from stem cells.

This is how your whole body is formed, from stem cells.

Stem cells on the basis of there ability to form different types of cells can be divided into 4 classes:

1. Totipotent: Totipotent cells are cells that are capable of giving rise to the whole organism itself. A morula(a mass of cell formed from zygote) can

2. Pluripotent: These cells originate from totipotent cells and are capable of forming all the cells except a few.

3. Multipotent: Multipotents can develop into only a limited types of cells.

4. Unipotent: Unipotent stem sells can produce cells of their own type only.

On the basis of the stage of development from which they are obtained, stem cells can be of two types:

1. Embryonic stem cells: ES cells are obtained from morula stage(16-32 celled stage). These cells are totipotent, i.e. they are capable of forming the whole individual i.e. you!

2. Adult stem cells: These cells are obtained from a grown individual(hence the name,adult). These cells are rarely totipotent and mostly are pluripotent or multipotent or unipotent.

Thats much about the stem cells.

So how are they useful to us? As you may have guessed by now, when a certain cell/tissue of your body are malfunctioning or are simply damaged, these stem cells can be used to develop the damaged cell and replace the damaged or malfunctioning cells or tissues and thus can be used to cure dreadful diseases!

But however useful this may sound for curing diseases to you, many people and scientists are actually opposed to stem cell research. Most useful stem cells are embryonic stem cells as they only are totipotent but these cells can only be obtained from an embryo. Now that is where the epicentre of controversy lies. many people consider this un-ethical behaviour to take out stem cells from embryo.

But, adult stem cells are widely used in treatment of diseases like Alzhiemer, Parkinson’s disease,Autoimmune diseases, anemias,blood and liver diseases,brain tumors,cancer (brain, breast, ovarian, renal cell, melanoma, leukemia, and other types),heart diseases,leukemias,multiple sclerosis,rheumatoid arthritis,paralysis etc world wide.

Recently, a research established that menstrual blood is a very rich source of stem cells. So that provides us an easy and confirmed (not easy for women) source  of stem cells.