Stem Cells

REGENERATING OUR LIFE

The stem of life
Stem in a plant refers to the main trunk or stalk from which all other minor branches, 
leaves, and flowers derive.

Now that you have this image in your mind, the concept of stem cells may become easy to assimilate. 
Stems are the cells from which can derive a variety of other types of cells forming an organism. For the same reason, stem cells also are known as mother cells.
All animal bodies have different types of cells with specialized functions and appearances. It is easy to observe the variety of cells in our own body:

For example, look at your skin's hands. The most external layer of your skin (what you see) is formed for cells that already crossed for different stages, and they became what you see now. Those skin cells are vastly different from the cells that are making your heartbeat right now, or the cells in your retina, in your eyes, letting you read this…. Wow! our body is wonderful, isn't it?
Now, think of stem cells as those capable of originating almost all types of cells you can imagine to find in your body. Stem cells have such potential.
Stem cells are abundant in the early phases of our development. However, the most exciting fact is that stem cells survive in specific regions of our adult body, constituting a source to replace old and damaged cells while life goes on. If our body suffer an injury, for example, in the leg's muscle, our stem cells will be activated, and the muscle will repair itself. Some scientists name this property plasticity because of the flexibility of cells to modify their destiny according to the moment's circumstances, like an injury event.
Plasticity an impressive capacity!     
... for good or bad.
Plasticity refers to the capacity to transform into something else. In the case of cells, scientists think that cells show plasticity when they can reshape their functions and structures. Indeed, plasticity is a trait hold by the named stem cells. Notably, many studies have demonstrated that plasticity is observed in our bodies during recovery after an injury. Plasticity allows regeneration, for example, from the standard wound healing process in the skin, until the recovery of essential areas like the brain. 
However, we still do not know about the detailed mechanism that led to the activation and regulation of stem cells. Moreover it is this same plasticity that allows the appearance of tumors. 
So what evokes this shift of beneficial plasticity into the unwanted cancer-plasticity? Science still looks for answers for that.

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