GCSE Biology

In therapeutic cloning an embryo gets formed with the same genes as a patient. Can the embryonic stem cells only differentiate into the type of cell they were derived from or all types of cells?

Reply 1

{Moss}

Original post by VoiidDev

In therapeutic cloning an embryo gets formed with the same genes as a patient. Can the embryonic stem cells only differentiate into the type of cell they were derived from or all types of cells?

They can differentiate into any kind of cell :smile:

Effectively what is done is that an egg cell is given Human DNA and stimulated to divide. We use a normal human cell because they have the right number of chromosomes, whereas an egg cell only has half the usual number (as they usually divide into an embryo after fertilisation with a sperm). It also leads to an identical 'clone' rather than a mix of chromosomes you normally get. You'll note that the same technique is also used for adult cell cloning, to produce an animal clone.
I'm a bit rusty but I think basically the egg cell divides to form loads of embryonic stem cells. These have the ability to differentiate into any kind of cell, hence the advantage over adult stem cells (which are found in bone marrow and can only differentiate into some specific cells). It's basically the same as what happens after human reproduction, which is why there are ethical issues regarding therapeutic cloning.

There's some really good BBC Bitesize sites for this, if you'd care to search them up, too.
Hope this helps! Just thought I'd go into a bit more detail, so apologies if you knew it all already haha. Best of luck with your GCSEs :biggrin: