Las preciadas progenitoras celulares

Question

Hi, here's the phrase that's driving me crazy...

Las preciadas progenitoras celulares se obtienen básicamente de dos fuentes:

I'm working on a translation about stem cells. I suspect preciadas here has a more specialised meaning than "precious/treasured.." etc. Anybody have a clue?

"valued progenitor cells" just doesn't cut it. So I have ........."are primarily derived from two sources" but ...

What is the source of your quotation? - nizhoni1, JUN 8, 2010

Answer 1

I have heard of and also seen several articles on "precious progenitor cells". I think that "precious" is the correct translation here.

Answer 2

Oh, silly me! I thought this was about the cell phone fore bearers!

That's funny. When I read the title, my limited knowledge of Spanish got me to thinking that what it meant was something like this too. :) - Rikko, JUN 8, 2010

jejeje, same here!!! - 00494d19, JUN 9, 2010

Answer 3

Ok, here's the answer:

Precious cells are those that are difficult to obtain in large quantitites. Often, these cells are also precious because of the information they contain (From Plant functional genomics

Written by Erich Grotewold)

Thanks for the comments by the way

Answer 4

I'm very grateful for that Nicole but still puzzled.

Nizhoni1, no offence, forgive me, but I think that scientific/academic language intentionally avoids emotive/romantic characterisations of research assertions if it hopes to survive, get funding and publish.

Perhaps I'm looking for precision where it isn't but I can't believe a paper was published and peer-assessed where the researchers are suddenly "precious".

What I'm after here is that "precious" has a particular meaning within the field of stem cell research... or am I nuts?

You are not nuts. I saw the term used repeatedly in a search. - Nicole-B, JUN 8, 2010

Yeah, I am one of those scientific geeks and would generally agree with you but this seems to be what they are doing here.I can think of no "scientific" meaning of precious.People of scientific leaning are not devoid of humanity. - nizhoni1, JUN 8, 2010

It looks like Nicole is quoting an interview, not a journal article.Sometimes people of science give interviews about their work.Showing respect often gets funding and may bridge some negative feelings about ethical issues involved in these projects - nizhoni1, JUN 8, 2010

Answer 5

THe term acknowledges the gift and the pains gone through for someone to donate part of themselves.for someone elses wellbeing.

Answer 6

Here is a portion of one of the articles I found:

At first, the lab focused on processing hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow, adult peripheral blood, and umbilical cord blood for bone marrow transplants at the University of Minnesota. The now-routine techniques continue to be its “bread and butter,” says McKenna, and enormous temperature-regulated tanks store the precious progenitor cells in a single room of the basement. (The bone marrow transplant program at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, is the nation’s most active user of hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood.)

I believe it is just an adjective describing how delicate and important the cells are, but that is a guess. - Nicole-B, JUN 8, 2010

Answer 7

Thanks Nicole. Can you tell me more? It must have a more specialised meaning than simply "precious". Is it like "charmed" I wonder, as in "charmed quarks"?