Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: March 25, 2005
Summary:
Meticulous experiments in mice revealed that the placenta harbors a large supply of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells. These cells, which appear very early in development, are able to generate more blood stem cells and can give rise to a complete blood system when transplanted into an adult. Unlike other sites where blood stem cells are found during embryonic development, such as the liver, the stem cells in the placenta can increase in number without giving rise to mature, specialized cells.
