not all the bodies organs regenerate as readily as the blood and the lining up the gut and the multopotent stem cells that have been identified in the adult body are both limited in their ability to generate other lineages and difficult to maintain and culture in contrast the pluripotent cells the inner cell mass can be harvested in grozny indefinitely in vitro and can give rise to every type a cell in the body these pluripotent cells in culture are known as embryonic stem or ES cells by culturing these cells under controlled conditions it is possible to steer their differentiation into specific cell types for example ES cells cultured on a bed of stromal feeder cells and treated with inductive factirs such as bmp4 and sonic hedgehog tend to differentiatr into neural lineages by testing various ES cell culture conditions scientists are gaining new insights into the biology of the differentiation processes that build and sustain and may one day be used to heal our bodies stem cell reseachers are currently exploring ways to differentiate ES cell do lineages that are to great medical and biological interest the nervous system the pancreas and the heart all regenerate too poorly to restore themselves after serious injury or degenerarive disease scientists are now seeking ways if using the knowledge they gain every day from the study embryonic and somatic stem cells to help save patients lives and to improve our understanding of their seemingly limitless potential