What is adult stem cell research?

Question

It might sound stupid but I've never heard of it before. Does the adult it come from have to be dead or can they be alive?

Answer 1

The adult is alive.  Stem cells can be extracted from the bone marrow, as bone marrow by definition is stem cells.  They do that with nice long needles in the hip bone during a surgical proceedure.  There is also stem cells in the peripheral blood.  They are a type of white blood cell.  They are taken using aphersis, the same process as if you were to sell plasma or even some red cross donations.  Those 2 types of stem cells as well as cord blood is what is used in stem cell transplants, the medically accurate term for a bone marrow transplant.  Stem cells have been around for a very long time in the form of bone marrow transplants.

http://www.marrow.org

They can also get stem cells from the skin, which they are working to make the simular to embryonic.  I also think they can currently get them from teeth?  but dont know for sure.

Every organ of the human body has stem cells, we are just working on how to safely extract them.

Answer 2

stem cells typically comes from embryos but a few of these remain during adulthood to help regenerate after injuries. so adult stem cell simply means that the stem cells are extracted from an adult and not from an embryo