Advances towards studying and applying the properties of stem cells have gathered much popularity in the recent times. All stem cells, regardless of their source of origin, have three general properties associated with them. These three properties of stem cells include their ability to divide and renew themselves for long durations; them being unspecialized; and their ability to give rise to specialized cell types.

These capabilities also make stem cells invaluable and work well in stem cell therapy. One of the important properties of stem cells is that they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long durations and may replicate many times. This ensures for their use in stem cell therapy applications. The specific factors and conditions that provide stem cells to remain unspecialized are of great interest to scientists.

Stem cells are unspecialized. One of the major Stem Cell Properties is that it does not have any tissue-specific structure that allows it to perform specialized functions. However, unspecialized stem cells can give rise to specialized cells, including heart muscle cells, blood cells, or nerve cells and this process is referred to as differentiation.

One of the properties of stem cells giving rise to specialized cells forms the basis of all stem cell therapy uses. While differentiating, the cell usually stages, becoming more specialized at each step. Adult stem cells as a property of cells typically generates the cell types of the tissue in which they live. For example, a blood-forming adult stem cell in the bone marrow normally gives rise to the many types of blood cells. It is usually accepted that a blood-forming cell in the bone marrow—which is called a hematopoietic stem cell—cannot give rise to the cells of a very different tissue, such as nerve cells in the brain.