Final answer:
Competent cells might respond to external stimuli by senescence, programmed cell death, or unregulated cell division, potentially leading to cancer. Cancer treatments aim to kill or remove rapidly dividing cancer cells through surgery, chemotherapy, and other means. Stem cell research includes inducing differentiation into specialized cells with applications in therapy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The competent cells you're referring to may undergo various treatments to enable them to take up extraneous DNA, but in the context of cell behavior and response to external stimuli, they might undergo three different responses:
- Enter an irreversible state of dormancy, known as senescence.
- Commit to programmed cell death, often called apoptosis.
- Engage in continuous and unregulated cell division, which could lead to the formation of tumors and potential development into cancer.
In the realm of cancer treatment, early diagnosis and treating cancer are critical, employing methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy. Understanding cell cycle checkpoints is also vital in treatment, as well as cell differentiation in stem cell research, where conditions must be adjusted to induce specialization of stem cells. These specializations can be pluripotent, like human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), or multipotent, like adult stem cells found in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood.