do fertilized embryos contain stem cells
Once an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm, it will divide and become an embryo. In the embryo, there are stem cells that are capable of becoming all of the various cell types of the human body. For research, scientists get embryos in two ways. Many couples conceive by the process of in vitro fertilization. In this process, a couple's sperm and eggs are fertilized in a culture dish.
But embryonic stem cell-based therapies can do much more. 1  Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack. 2  The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.