Stem cells are immortal cells that can both proliferate (divide) and change (differentiate) into more specialized cells such as skin, liver or blood cells. The most powerful stem cells are known as “pluripotent” because they have the potential to become any cell in the body. The first pluripotent stem cells to be studied were embryonic stem cells, but because creating embryonic stem cells involves the destruction of a fertilized human embryo, many people have ethical concerns about the use of such cells. To avoid any such ethical concerns, Lifeline Skin Care® uses instead a proprietary extract from a different class of pluripotent stem cells called parthenogenetic stem cells. As a result, a user of our serum need never be concerned that a viable human embryo was damaged or destroyed to create the product.
The ability of pluripotent stem cells to divide an unlimited number of times seemingly without showing signs of aging or changing is because of a unique enzyme called telomerase. The DNA molecules of normal cells (including some stem cells) get slightly shorter each time the cell divides, eventually reaching a point where the cell dies. Telomerase’s job is to constantly rebuild the end of the cells’ DNA after they divide, but in normal adult tissue (except blood and certain other types of tissue in the immune system) the enzyme is not present in sufficient concentrations to stop the cells dying over time. Only parthenogenetic and embryonic stem cells possess enough telomerase to make them effectively immortal.
The human parthenogenetic stem cells we use were created by our parent company International Stem Cell Corporation, the world leader in the use of human parthenogenetic stem cell technology to search for ways of treating human disease using stem cell technology.
