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Stem Cell Types: Embryonic, Induced Pluripotent, Adult and MSC

Por Benn Bluestein-Veyra, M.Sc. en Química Orgánica · Actualizado el 20 de octubre de 2026

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Qué cubre esta páginaA primer on stem cell types: embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, hematopoietic and other adult stem cells, and where mesenchymal stromal cells fit.
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The main types of stem cells are embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells and adult, or tissue, stem cells, each defined by its ability to renew itself and to give rise to specialized cells.[1] Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) belong with the multipotent adult cell types.[2][3]

This primer covers the potency hierarchy, the derivation of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, the transcription factors that hold pluripotency in place and the adult stem cells best studied in their niches. It closes with MSCs and the perinatal tissues they are isolated from.[4][5]

Understanding the stem cell potency hierarchy

Potency describes the range of cell types a stem cell can produce, and it narrows at each step of development. Zakrzewski and colleagues classify stem cells as totipotent, pluripotent, multipotent, oligopotent and unipotent, from the widest potential to the narrowest (Fig. 1).[4]

  • Totipotent cells, such as the zygote, form the embryo together with extraembryonic structures, including the placenta.[4]
  • Pluripotent cells form cells of all three germ layers, ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm; embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells are the standard examples.[1][4]
  • Multipotent cells form the cell types of one tissue or lineage family, as a hematopoietic stem cell forms the types of blood cells.[4]
  • Unipotent cells form a single cell type and keep the capacity to divide repeatedly.[4]

Condic describes totipotency as the property of a cell that can form a whole organism, and links it to oocyte-derived cytoplasm. She proposed the term plenipotent to resolve confusion around totipotency.[6]

Four stacked tiers from widest to narrowest potency: totipotent zygote forming embryo and placenta, pluripotent inner cell mass, ESCs and iPSCs forming all three germ layers, multipotent adult stem cells and MSCs forming one tissue family, and unipotent cells forming a single cell type
Fig. 1 | The stem cell potency hierarchy. Potential narrows from totipotent cells, which form the embryo and extraembryonic tissues, through pluripotent and multipotent cells to unipotent cells that form a single cell type.Imagen: ExaVeyra Sciences, figura originalAfter Zakrzewski et al., Stem Cell Res Ther 2019; Condic, Stem Cells Dev 2014; Thomson et al., Science 1998.

Embryonic stem cells come from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst

The early mammalian embryo at the blastocyst stage holds two cell types: the inner cell mass, which develops into every tissue of the body, and the trophectoderm, which contributes to the placenta.[1] Evans and Kaufman established pluripotential cell lines from cultured mouse embryos in 1981.[7]

Thomson and colleagues derived the first human embryonic stem cell lines from blastocysts in 1998. The lines had normal karyotypes, high telomerase activity and the surface markers of primate embryonic stem cells (Fig. 2).[8]

After four to five months of undifferentiated growth, the cells still formed trophoblast and derivatives of all three germ layers: gut epithelium, cartilage, bone, smooth and striated muscle, neural epithelium, embryonic ganglia and stratified squamous epithelium.[8]

Naive and primed states of pluripotency

Pluripotent cells can be held in culture in distinct configurations, termed naive and primed, that differ in their functional and molecular characteristics. Weinberger and colleagues review the signaling pathways that preserve each state and drive transitions between them in rodent and human cells.[9]

Phase contrast micrograph of a compact, rounded colony of small, tightly packed human embryonic stem cells surrounded by elongated, spindle-shaped mouse embryonic fibroblasts
Fig. 2 | A human embryonic stem cell colony (cell line SA02) growing on a feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts, phase contrast. The stem cells form a dense, sharply bordered colony; the feeder cells around it are elongated.Imagen: Id711 (English Wikipedia), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (released by the author)

Induced pluripotent stem cells are reprogrammed from somatic cells

Takahashi and Yamanaka reported in 2006 that four transcription factors, Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4, induced pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblasts under embryonic stem cell culture conditions. Nanog was dispensable for this induction.[10]

The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells shared the morphology, growth properties and marker genes of embryonic stem cells, and after injection into blastocysts they contributed to mouse embryonic development.[10] Yamanaka later described iPSCs as the merging of three major scientific streams.[11]

In 2007, Takahashi and colleagues generated iPS cells from adult human dermal fibroblasts with the same four factors. The cells matched human embryonic stem cells in morphology, proliferation, surface antigens, gene expression, epigenetic status of pluripotency genes and telomerase activity.[12]

The same year, Yu and colleagues in the Thomson laboratory reprogrammed human somatic cells with a different set: OCT4, SOX2, NANOG and LIN28. Their lines had normal karyotypes and differentiated into advanced derivatives of all three primary germ layers.[13]

Takahashi and Yamanaka note that reprogramming needs only the host cell and a defined cocktail of transcription factors, and that its efficiency has risen considerably.[14] Whether iPSCs are functionally equivalent to embryonic stem cells remains an open research question.[11]

OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG form the core pluripotency network

OCT4 is a POU-family transcription factor encoded by POU5F1 on chromosome 6p21.33.[15] Nichols and colleagues found that Oct4-deficient mouse embryos reached the blastocyst stage with an inner cell mass restricted to the extraembryonic trophoblast lineage.[16]

NANOG, encoded on chromosome 12p13.31, is a homeodomain protein.[17] Chambers and colleagues found Nanog mRNA in pluripotent mouse and human cell lines and absent from differentiated cells, and raised Nanog expression sustained clonal expansion of mouse embryonic stem cells independently of Stat3.[18]

Mitsui and colleagues showed that Nanog maintained self-renewal independently of the LIF and Stat3 pathway. Nanog-deficient embryonic stem cells lost pluripotency and differentiated into the extraembryonic endoderm lineage.[19]

SOX2, an HMG-box transcription factor, is encoded on chromosome 3q26.33.[20] Boyer and colleagues mapped the binding sites of OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG across the genome of human embryonic stem cells and found that the three factors co-occupy a substantial portion of their target genes.[21]

Many of those targets encode transcription factors, among them developmentally important homeodomain proteins. The three factors form autoregulatory and feedforward loops, a circuitry that supports pluripotency and self-renewal.[21]

Crystal structures show OCT and SOX2 partners on DNA

Reményi and colleagues solved a ternary complex of the Oct1 POU domain and the Sox2 HMG domain bound to an enhancer DNA element (Fig. 3a).[22] Their models indicated that Oct4 and Sox2 dimerize on DNA in distinct arrangements, set by the layout of each enhancer.[22]

Esch and colleagues solved the Oct4 POU domain bound to DNA (Fig. 3b). The linker between its two DNA-binding domains forms an exposed alpha helix, where the Oct1 linker is unstructured, and point mutations in this helix altered or abolished reprogramming activity.[23]

Ribbon model of a DNA double helix in gray with the Sox2 HMG domain in blue at the left end and the two-part Oct1 POU domain in teal gripping the DNA along the right half
a, Complejo ternario del dominio POU de Oct1 (verde azulado) y el dominio HMG de Sox2 (azul) unidos uno junto al otro sobre un elemento potenciador de ADN (gris). Estructura cristalina por rayos X, 2,6 Å, PDB 1GT0. 42
Ribbon model of a gray DNA double helix bound by two Oct4 POU domains, one teal and one blue, each with helical subdomains at the outer ends and a central pair of domains packed against each other
b, Dos copias del dominio POU de Oct4 de ratón (verde azulado y azul) unidas a un dúplex de ADN (gris). Cada dominio POU tiene dos subdominios de unión al ADN conectados por un enlazador. Estructura cristalina por rayos X, 2,8 Å, PDB 3L1P. 43

Fig. 3 | Oct1 POU and Sox2 HMG domains bound together on DNA and mouse Oct4 POU domain bound to DNA.

Adult stem cells maintain their tissues from defined niches

Adult stem cells are found in a tissue or organ and give rise to the specialized cell types of that tissue. They sit in specific anatomical locations and can remain quiescent for long periods until activated (Fig. 4).[1] Morrison and Scadden define niches as local microenvironments that maintain and regulate stem cells.[24]

Map of stem cell sources: ESCs from the blastocyst inner cell mass, iPSCs from fibroblasts given OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC, adult stem cells in bone marrow, intestinal crypt, hair follicle bulge and brain, and MSCs from umbilical cord, placenta and amniotic membrane
Fig. 4 | Where each type of stem cell comes from. Pluripotent cells are derived from the embryo or reprogrammed from somatic cells; adult stem cells reside in tissue niches; perinatal tissues yield mesenchymal stromal cells and amniotic epithelial cells.Imagen: ExaVeyra Sciences, figura originalAfter Thomson et al., Science 1998; Takahashi et al., Cell 2007; Morrison and Scadden, Nature 2014; Barker et al., Nature 2007; Jaks et al., Nat Genet 2008; Obernier and Alvarez-Buylla, Development 2019; Silini et al., Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2020.

Hematopoietic stem cells and the spleen colony assay

Till and McCulloch injected mouse bone marrow cells into irradiated recipient mice and counted the macroscopic colonies that formed in the spleen, a direct and quantitative measure of colony-forming marrow cells.[25] Becker, McCulloch and Till then used chromosome markers to show that each spleen colony arose from a single cell.[26]

Morrison and Scadden describe the bone marrow niche for hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) as perivascular, created partly by mesenchymal stromal cells and endothelial cells and often located near trabecular bone.[24]

Pinho and Frenette review how the niche controls HSC proliferation, self-renewal, differentiation and migration. Candidate niche cells include perivascular mesenchymal and endothelial cells as well as HSC-derived megakaryocytes, macrophages and regulatory T cells.[27]

Intestinal stem cells express LGR5

Barker and colleagues found the Wnt target gene Lgr5 expressed exclusively in cycling columnar cells at the base of intestinal crypts. In lineage tracing in adult mice, these crypt base columnar cells generated all epithelial lineages over the following two months.[28] Human LGR5 maps to chromosome 12q21.1.[29]

Sato and colleagues established culture conditions in which single sorted Lgr5+ stem cells built crypt-villus organoids containing all differentiated cell types, with no non-epithelial cellular niche.[30] Gehart and Clevers describe progeny that differentiate into one of six mature cell types as they move up toward the villus.[31]

Skin and hair follicle stem cells occupy separate pools

Blanpain and Fuchs describe distinct resident stem cell pools that maintain the interfollicular epidermis, the hair follicles and the sebaceous glands.[32] In the hair follicle bulge, Blanpain and colleagues used clonal analysis to demonstrate self-renewal and multipotency, the two defining features of stem cells.[33]

Jaks and colleagues found Lgr5 on actively cycling cells in the bulge and secondary germ, and Lgr5+ cells maintained all hair follicle lineages over long periods.[34] Hsu and colleagues showed that early stem cell descendants home back to the bulge and become the primary stem cells for the next hair cycle.[35]

Hsu, Li and Fuchs review how genetic and imaging tools have clarified the lineage relationships between skin stem cells and their progeny, and the mutual influences between these cells and their niches.[36]

Neural stem cells persist in two zones of the adult brain

Reynolds and Weiss isolated cells from the adult mouse striatum that proliferated in culture with epidermal growth factor. The cells expressed nestin and then developed the morphology and antigenic properties of neurons and astrocytes.[37]

Obernier and Alvarez-Buylla describe neural stem cells in the ventricular-subventricular zone and the hippocampal subgranular zone of the adult rodent brain, which generate young neurons for the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus.[38] Bond, Ming and Song review five decades of this research.[39]

Mesenchymal stromal cells are multipotent adult cells defined in culture

Pittenger and colleagues isolated cells from the marrow aspirates of volunteer donors that differentiated into the adipocytic, chondrocytic or osteocytic lineages. Single cells expanded to colonies kept this multilineage potential.[2]

The International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) set three minimal criteria for human MSCs: adherence to plastic in standard culture; expression of CD105, CD73 and CD90 without CD45, CD34, CD14 or CD11b, CD79alpha or CD19 and HLA-DR; and differentiation to osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondroblasts in vitro.[3]

The ISCT MSC committee keeps the acronym MSC, recommends that it be paired with the tissue of origin and reads it as mesenchymal stromal cells unless rigorous in vitro and in vivo evidence supports stemness.[5] In the marrow, MSCs also form part of the perivascular HSC niche.[24][27]

Perinatal tissues supply stromal and epithelial cells

Parolini and colleagues, reporting the first international workshop on placenta-derived stem cells, noted that most work on the term placenta concerns MSCs from its different parts and epithelial cells from the amniotic membrane. The workshop called for clear definitions of the region of origin and the isolation method for each cell type.[40]

Silini and colleagues followed with a roadmap of placental development and structure. It locates each perinatal cell population, describes its morphology and phenotype and proposes a shared nomenclature for perinatal cells and derivatives.[41]

Comparing the main types of stem cells side by side

The table brings the types of stem cells on this page together by origin, potency and the measurement that defines each one. Landmark derivations and assays are listed with their authors.[3][8][12][25][28]

TypeOriginPotencyDefining measurementLandmark work
Embryonic stem cellsInner cell mass of the blastocystPluripotentOCT4, SOX2 and NANOG; three germ layer derivativesEvans and Kaufman 1981; Thomson 1998
Induced pluripotent stem cellsReprogrammed somatic cellsPluripotentESC-like markers and three germ layer derivativesTakahashi and Yamanaka 2006; Takahashi 2007; Yu 2007
Hematopoietic stem cellsPerivascular bone marrow nicheMultipotentClonal spleen coloniesTill and McCulloch 1961; Becker 1963
Intestinal stem cellsCrypt baseMultipotentLGR5, lineage tracing, organoidsBarker 2007; Sato 2009
Hair follicle stem cellsBulge and secondary germMultipotentClonal analysis, LGR5Blanpain 2004; Jaks 2008
Neural stem cellsV-SVZ and hippocampal SGZMultipotentNestin; neurons and astrocytes in cultureReynolds and Weiss 1992
Mesenchymal stromal cellsBone marrow, adipose and perinatal tissuesMultipotent in cultureISCT panel and trilineage differentiationPittenger 1999; Dominici 2006

Where to go from here

The ISCT minimal criteria reference explains the MSC marker panel in detail, and the stem versus stromal cells reference traces the naming. The source tissues reference compares bone marrow, adipose tissue, umbilical cord and placenta, and the iPSC-derived MSC reference follows MSCs made from pluripotent cells.

The secretome and immunobiology references describe what MSCs release and how they signal to immune cells, and the perinatal tissue donor eligibility reference covers the federal framework for cord and placental material. Verified practices can request lot documentation, and our team is glad to discuss the methods described on this page.

Referencias comentadas

Numeradas en el orden en que se citan en el texto. Cada fuente lleva una nota sobre lo que respalda en esta página; los artículos revisados por pares se listan con revista, volumen, número y páginas, y las fuentes primarias son regulaciones, documentos de agencias y bases de datos de referencia.

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  40. 40.Peer-reviewedParolini O, Alviano F, Bagnara GP, et al. Concise review: isolation and characterization of cells from human term placenta: outcome of the first international Workshop on Placenta Derived Stem Cells. Stem Cells. 2008;26(2):300-311. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17975221/Annotation: Workshop consensus on placental cells. Cited for the focus on placental MSCs and amniotic epithelial cells and the call to define region of origin and isolation method.
  41. 41.Peer-reviewedSilini AR, Di Pietro R, Lang-Olip I, et al. Perinatal Derivatives: Where Do We Stand? A Roadmap of the Human Placenta and Consensus for Tissue and Cell Nomenclature. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 2020;8:610544. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33392174/Annotation: COST SPRINT consensus review of perinatal tissues. Cited for the placental roadmap, cell locations, morphology and phenotype, and proposed nomenclature.

Cite this page

ExaVeyra Sciences Editorial Team. Stem Cell Types: Embryonic, Induced Pluripotent, Adult and MSC. ExaVeyra Sciences; 20 October 2026. Available from: https://exaveyra.com/science/stem-cells/stem-cell-types. Accessed [date accessed].

Fuentes de las figuras

  1. 42.PDB 1GT0, Crystal structure of a POU/HMG/DNA ternary complex. ExaVeyra Sciences, rendered in PyMOL from PDB 1GT0. Structure data: RCSB Protein Data Bank (rcsb.org), CC0. Publicación de la estructura: Reményi A, Lins K, Nissen LJ, Reinbold R, Schöler HR, Wilmanns M. Crystal structure of a POU/HMG/DNA ternary complex suggests differential assembly of Oct4 and Sox2 on two enhancers. Genes Dev. 2003;17(16):2048-2059.
  2. 43.PDB 3L1P, POU protein:DNA complex (Oct4). ExaVeyra Sciences, rendered in PyMOL from PDB 3L1P. Structure data: RCSB Protein Data Bank (rcsb.org), CC0. Publicación de la estructura: Esch D, Vahokoski J, Groves MR, et al. A unique Oct4 interface is crucial for reprogramming to pluripotency. Nat Cell Biol. 2013;15(3):295-301.
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Preguntas frecuentes

What are the main types of stem cells?
The main types are embryonic stem cells from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, induced pluripotent stem cells reprogrammed from somatic cells, and adult or tissue stem cells such as hematopoietic, intestinal, hair follicle and neural stem cells. Mesenchymal stromal cells are multipotent adult cells defined in culture.
What is the difference between totipotent, pluripotent and multipotent stem cells?
Totipotent cells, such as the zygote, form the embryo and its extraembryonic tissues, including the placenta. Pluripotent cells form all three germ layers. Multipotent cells form the cell types of one tissue or lineage family, and unipotent cells form a single cell type.
How are induced pluripotent stem cells made?
Somatic cells such as skin fibroblasts are reprogrammed by expressing a small set of transcription factors. The original mouse and human work used OCT4 (Oct3/4), SOX2, KLF4 and MYC, and a parallel human study used OCT4, SOX2, NANOG and LIN28.
What do OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG do?
They are the core transcription factors of pluripotent cells. In human embryonic stem cells they bind many of the same target genes and form autoregulatory and feedforward loops that support pluripotency and self-renewal.
Are mesenchymal stromal cells stem cells?
MSCs are multipotent adult cells that differentiate into bone, cartilage and fat cells in culture. The ISCT recommends the name mesenchymal stromal cells, with the tissue of origin stated, and reserves mesenchymal stem cells for preparations with rigorous in vitro and in vivo evidence of stemness.
Where do perinatal stem and stromal cells come from?
They are isolated from tissues collected at birth: the umbilical cord, including Wharton’s jelly, the placenta and the amniotic membrane. Most research on these tissues concerns mesenchymal stromal cells and amniotic epithelial cells.

Lecturas relacionadas

ISCT minimal criteria for MSCsMesenchymal stem vs stromal cellsMSC source tissuesiPSC-derived MSCsMSC immunobiologyPerinatal tissue donor eligibilityTodas las referencias de células madre y MSC

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