Under appropriate culture conditions, embryonic have demonstrated a remarkable ability to self-renew continuously, that is, to produce more cells like themselves that are multipotent.

Human embryonic stem cells that have been propagated for more than two  years also demonstrate a stable and normal complement of chromosomes. This is in contrast to the unstable and abnormal complement of embryonic cancer cell lines used in the past.

Research on human embryonic stem cells is very recent. The data about properties of stem cells comes from mice. [Read more...]