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Institutions
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Stem Cell Semantics
An embryo is an embryo is an embryo – except when it's not
Email: Ricki Lewis - rlewis@the-scientist.com The Scientist 2004, 18(24):56
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It's been six years since human embryonic stem cells appeared on the public radar screen, and we still don't know what to call them. Take the word "embryo," which means different things to different people. In the 1980s, an embryo wasn't an embryo until it 1) had a primitive streak, 2) sported three layers, and 3) could no longer split to yield twins. Then somehow an inner cell mass became a full-fledged embryo, although it is only a mere smear of undifferentiated cells hugging the interior of a blastocyst.
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