Final answer:
Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells in adult tissues that can self-renew and specialize into tissue-specific cells. They play a key role in tissue maintenance, repair, and stem cell research, which seeks to harness their regenerative capabilities for medical treatments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The adult stem cells are the self-renewing, not completely differentiated cells that are present in most adult tissues. These specialized cells maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. Notably, adult stem cells can be found in various parts of the body, including the bone marrow. There are different types of adult stem cells, such as hematopoietic stem cells which give rise to blood cells, endothelial stem cells which are the precursors to the cells lining blood and lymph vessels, and mesenchymal stem cells which can differentiate into various types of muscle cells. They are vital for stem cell research, aiming to utilize them for regenerating and repairing cellular damage, as they can divide and differentiate into specialized cells commonly formed by the tissue they inhabit.
For instance, the epithelial stem cells in the epidermis give rise to keratinocytes. Stem cell research has great potential for treating illnesses and understanding early human development. Furthermore, stem cells can be classified based on their potential to differentiate, such as pluripotent stem cells which can become many different cell types, and totipotent and multipotent cells, referring to their differentiation abilities.