Why Do Stem Cells Differentiate
Stem cells are in essence the primary building blocks of our bodies. First developed when we are forming in an embryotic state, stem cells are used to form the basic structures of our body (including the skeletal, nervous and various tissue systems that we need for our very survival). While in the initial stages of our development these cells are highly versatile and can be used for any number of different functions. This allows for one cell to easily replace another if that cell should be having problems, helping to ensure the healthy development of a child before it is born.
As our bodies develop, however, stem cells must specialize in certain tasks in order to allow our body’s different systems to both function independently of one another while still interlinking and working together as a single organism. This means that the previously highly flexible stem cells that could be used for any number of bone, tissue or nerve growth must focus on one particular area and differentiate themselves from other stem cells in order to be more easily used in that area later on should additional cell growth be necessary.
These cells can further be found differentiating even further as human being grow and develop themselves through childhood and adolescence. Puberty is a primary changing point where a number of new systems are established and in order to meet the body’s structural demands stem cells must work appropriately to handle those. This leads stem cells to focus or differentiate more and close off some developmental pathways while opening up others for our body’s use.
Although stem cells may become more and more specialized as we grow older this does not mean that they cannot be used in various different ways effectively with enough propagation and genetic coding. Recent scientific discoveries are finding new ways to “bend” stem cells harvested from adult bodies into new genetic structures to aid with tissue, bone, cartilage and nerve regrowth that the stem cell may not be involved with normally (such as recent reports from Japan of stem cells being able to be harvested from developing wisdom teeth for usage in various different areas of the body).
Unfortunately no matter how much scientists may “push” stem cells harvested from adults in a certain way there is only so much that they can do and the stem cells simply will not be effective in generating any and all body systems imaginable. This is due to the fact that the previous differentiation the stem cells have undergone during the body’s development (with either partial or full specialization towards a specific system or structure) in order to allow the cell to perform its job more efficiently and thoroughly simply makes them unsuitable for most usage far outside of their pre-determined realm. While this does not mean that they have no flexibility in usage outside of their normal areas the farther and more “foreign” the system or structure is to the originally specialized system or structure then the less likely the stem cell is to effectively form appropriately.
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