A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science has reached the holy boy in the field of initial developmental study: they have grown mouse embryos outside the uterus.
The team’s achievements hope to give scientists a better understanding of the stages of development in genetics, as well as offering a stronger insight into the shortcomings of birth and development, and why some of misconduct occurring in the early stages of pregnancy.
The team’s findings were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, March 17th.
This seven-year research prompted the team to develop a two-step process that allowed mice to grow outside the uterus for six days – about a third of their normal 20-day gestation period.
By the time the six days were up, the embryos were already reasonably developed, with well-defined bodies and visible organs.
To date, the early stages of the initial development process have remained largely a mystery to scientists, so this study opens many doors for future research and a better understanding of the process.
Human embryos could be the next thing
In a parallel study also published in Nature on Wednesday, March 17, another team of scientists model an early human embryo from skin cells.
This research, conducted by a team of international scientists led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, will help to better understand the causes of early birth, infertility, as well as development early human.
The team was able to reprogram fibroblasts, or skin cells, into a 3D cell structure that resembles human blastocysts. The team called the new structures iBlastoids, which can be used to model human embryos in the laboratory.
“IBlastoids allow scientists to study the very early stages in human development and some of the causes of infertility, congenital diseases and the effects of toxins and viruses on early embryos – without the use of human blastocysts and , importantly, at an unprecedented scale, accelerating. our understanding and development of new therapies, “said Professor Jose Polo of Monash University.
The next steps of these studies will include new guidelines for ethical conduct of this type of work. Once defined, this type of research will be able to greatly benefit scientists’ understanding of the early stages of human development.