Adult Stem Cells: Past and Present

Stem cells have self-renewal, unlimited division and the capacity to differentiate to a variety of cell type or tissue cells. These cells can be provided from embryos in any stage of division, infant cord blood and bone marrow in adults. Although it has been about 50 years since the first discovery of stem cells, the studies carried out on these cells has recently gained momentum. Studies on stem cells have provided important information about physiology, morphology, development, proliferation and differentiation of these cells. The emergence of heamopoietic stem cells, derived from blood cells can turn into embryonic stem cells of differing origins (ectoderm and endoderm), that has greatly increased the studies on adult stem cells. The aim of this review is to give a concise overview of adult stem cells which is the one of two main groups of stem cells, their features and their application area.