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I've heard that stomach lining has the fastest reproducing cells and the brain has the slowest.

Where in the human body does mitosis occur and at what rates do these cell reproduce? Is there a chart for the whole body available?

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In many cases cell division depends on the stage of development an organism is in. The rate of cell division is obviously much faster in a developing organism and from what I understand fully differentiated cells such as neuron and those in skeletal muscles don't divide (correct me if I'm wrong here).

In early development totipotent cells (stem cells that can become anything) begin to differentiate dependent on environmental factors, turning into multipotent (partially differentiated) cells that can only lead to certain cell types. For example: mesodermal precursors can differentiate to myoblasts, which can go on to differentiate into myotubes, later forming muscles.

Epithelial and and blood cells are the two of the main types of cells that need to be constantly replaced in developed organisms. As far as I know cells lining the gut epithelium are fastest to divide. They are created from stem cells in 'crypts' (pockets) in the lining and are pushed outwards, where they are later broken down (by what I would assume would be abrasion and intestinal juices). My book gives them a lifespan of 3-5 days. External skin cells are much slower to divide (though I'n not sure by exactly how much).

IIRC blood cells have have an average life span of 4-6 weeks. They are replenished by stem cells in the marrow of certain bones (e.g. a femur). I haven't seen any charts for this yet, but it would be interesting to see one.

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But from how I understand it, blood cells are not really cells in the sense that they are just bags of haemoglobin without the standard internal organelles found in cells. – John Smith Feb 14 '12 at 2:03
That's right, but they do develop from precursor cells that contain a nucleus. To be honest, I don't know of many other cells that continue dividing at a steady rate. As far as I know cells such as fibroblasts and macrophages are mainly produced in response to stimulus. There are probably other types that I am missing however... – Ultimate Gobblement Feb 14 '12 at 2:18

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