Stem Cell Potency Hierarchy Explorer

Current stage

Totipotent

Zygote / early cleavage cell

9 final cell types
still reachable

Differentiate

Irreversibility

Path taken (locked)

Branches closed off (0)

None yet — choose a differentiation step to close sibling branches.

How it works

Every cell in the tree starts totipotent — able to become any cell in the body plus extra-embryonic tissue like the placenta. Each differentiation step is a one-way branch: choosing one path permanently closes every sibling branch, narrowing potency totipotent → pluripotent → multipotent → unipotent.

Totipotent — broadest potential: any body cell type, plus extra-embryonic tissue.
Pluripotent — can still become any of the body's own cell types, but has lost the extra-embryonic option.
Multipotent — narrowed to one related family of cell types (e.g. blood cells).
Unipotent — committed to exactly one final specialized cell type.

The reachable-destinations counter counts leaf cell types still inside the current node's subtree. Grayed-out nodes are permanently closed — normal biology gives no path back up the tree without extraordinary artificial reprogramming (a separate process, not modeled here).

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