The phrase "a differentiated cell" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in biological or medical contexts to refer to a cell that has developed specific functions and characteristics distinct from stem cells or undifferentiated cells.
Example: "In the study of tissue regeneration, researchers focused on the role of a differentiated cell in repairing damaged tissues."
Alternatives: "a specialized cell" or "a mature cell".
The long-assumed asymmetric way of cell division, in which a stem cell divides to generate an identical daughter and a differentiated cell (or a progenitor with limited differentiation or proliferative potential), was replaced by a neutral drift model in which stem cells prefer symmetric division to generate either two stem cells or two committed progenitors (Simons and Clevers, 2011).
It is also suggested how NANOG can act as a gatekeeper by suppressing any differentiation signals which would ultimately make the cell transition into a differentiated cell.
This process can be regarded as differentiation, as pericytes have stem cell features, or transdifferentiation of a differentiated cell toward a different phenotype, and this is clearly a matter of debate.
Trogocytosis involves only the transfer of cell surface antigens without the transfer of DNA or cytoplasm and transdifferentiation is defined as the ability of a differentiated cell to change phenotype to an unrelated cell without undergoing a de-differentiation step [14], [15].
For the first time, it was shown that a morphogen may determine the function of a differentiated cell according to its spatial location within a specific tissue, termed "post-differentiation patterning" (Gebhardt and Hovhannisyan 2010).
In 1996 British developmental biologist Ian Wilmut generated a cloned sheep, named Dolly, by means of nuclear transfer involving an enucleated embryo and a differentiated cell nucleus.
There are also unknown risks involved with transplanting SCNT-derived stem cells into humans, because the mechanism by which the unfertilized egg is able to reprogram the nuclear DNA of a differentiated cell is not entirely understood.
In animals the best evidence for retention of the entire set of genes comes from whole animal cloning experiments in which the nucleus of a differentiated cell is substituted for the nucleus of a fertilized egg.
Interestingly, stem cell division does not always have to involve renewal, and can instead generate assorted combinations of offspring like two progenitors or a progenitor and a differentiated cell.
The use of biodegradable microcarriers as initial supports for tissue engineering has been demonstrated to be advantageous for maintaining a differentiated cell phenotype; the high surface area also allows rapid cell expansion.
What Dolly demonstrated was that it is possible to take a differentiated cell, turn back its biological clock, and make the cell behave as though it was a recently fertilized egg.
