AUTHOR=Singh Vimal K. , Saini Abhishek , Kalsan Manisha , Kumar Neeraj , Chandra Ramesh TITLE=Describing the Stem Cell Potency: The Various Methods of Functional Assessment and In silico Diagnostics JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology VOLUME=4 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2016.00134 DOI=10.3389/fcell.2016.00134 ISSN=2296-634X ABSTRACT=

Stem cells are defined by their capabilities to self-renew and give rise to various types of differentiated cells depending on their potency. They are classified as pluripotent, multipotent, and unipotent as demonstrated through their potential to generate the variety of cell lineages. While pluripotent stem cells may give rise to all types of cells in an organism, Multipotent and Unipotent stem cells remain restricted to the particular tissue or lineages. The potency of these stem cells can be defined by using a number of functional assays along with the evaluation of various molecular markers. These molecular markers include diagnosis of transcriptional, epigenetic, and metabolic states of stem cells. Many reports are defining the particular set of different functional assays, and molecular marker used to demonstrate the developmental states and functional capacities of stem cells. The careful evaluation of all these methods could help in generating standard identifying procedures/markers for them.