Biology questions STEM CELLS!

My paper asked me about the one similarity between a stem cell and a cancer cell, and my answer was "both will continually renew themselves." But the paper's answer is "both are immortal"... Are they really "IMMORTAL"? I mean, self-renewal, does it mean the original old cells won't die? Or they will die after they have another generation of cells????

Ah...Biology is so confusing....

Thanks friends. :)

Ah no, we got taught that at University.

Cancer cells are 'immortal' (keep in mind that they're only immortal without intervention or treatment) because their telomerase activity is uncontrollable.

At the end of all of your chromosomes are telomeres which are just parts of code that code for nothing within the human genome. However, when DNA replication occurs - we lose part of these telomeres and the Chromosome becomes smaller due to the shortening of the telomere. If the telomeres are fully degraded then we lose parts of actual DNA code that code for something.

So, it means immortal due to the uncontrolled telomere growth in Cancer, so they must share this characteristic within stem cells.

(Any further explanation needed, add additional details and i'll check back in an hour).

Self-renewing and immortal are different. Immortal is saying they will never die, and therefore exist forever. This is ridiculous, because nothing is immortal, not even stem cells and cancer cells, because cancer cells can be killed by radiation, and stem cells eventually die too. Continually renewing means they will renew the ones that have died. I'm not sure if that is correct, but it is more correct than saying they are immortal. Both cells regenerate and divide to create more cells at a great rate that cannot be easily slowed.

They are both self-renewing but cancer cells and stem cells are also immortal i.e. the cells won't senescence because of the presence of the enzyme telomerase which prevents the telomere ends of the DNA from shortening. Remember with stem cells when a parent cell divides, it divides asymmetrically forming a daughter stem cell and a different cell that goes on to differentiate into a specialised cell. With cancer cells they just keep on dividing like crazy but don't die.

Neither are immortal. Stem cells are simply undifferentiated while cancer cells are often mutated so that their five "locks" are damaged and they continually go through mitosis.
The original cells will die.

The thing about cells is... when a cell divides, which is the "original" cell?
I'm pretty sure a cell is considered "immortal" if it will keep reproducing indefinitely.

YES! Both are immortal! This is why Stem Cell Research is forbidden by the G*d, Jesus! Any person made from stem cells will be immortal too!!