Cell potency#Multipotency

Multipotent (from the Latin Multus "a lot" and the Latin potentia " power, strength " ) is called stem cells that can develop into different cell types of a given line. In contrast to the pluripotent stem cells, they are no longer able to become almost every cell in the body.

The multipotent stem cells are adult stem cells, which can form only organic cells and which were thought previously that the differentiation possibilities are relatively limited. So should emerge only blood and immune cells from a blood stem cell and similar should be a brain - stem cell are only the different cell types of the brain. But this old view needs to be revised on the basis of recent research findings. Recently published studies have shown that these stem cells, but apparently inherent greater flexibility. If adult stem cells that is brought into a new environment, they can occasionally reveal an unexpected potential. There seem reversals possible so that from blood stem cells from the bone marrow, with storage in the liver, liver cells can be formed.

See

• Pluripotency
• Totipotency

• Developmental Biology
• Cell Biology