Definitions for "Multipotent stem cells"
stem cells from the embryo, fetus, or adult, whose progeny are of multiple differentiated cell types and usually, but not necessarily, all of a particular tissue, organ, or physiological system.
Stem cells that can give rise to several other cell types, but those types are limited in number. An example of multipotent cells is hematopoietic cells—blood stem cells that can develop into several types of blood cells. Scientists have long held the opinion that differentiated cells cannot be altered or caused to behave in any way other than the way in which they have been naturally committed. New research, however, has even called that assumption into question, and there is ongoing research exploring this issue.
See adult stem cells.