Scientists have created mouse embryos in the laboratory, and this could one day be used in humans to help families hoping to have offspring, new research shows.
After 10 years of research, scientists have created a synthetic mouse embryo, without seminal fluid or eggs, that has begun to form organs, according to a study published in the journal Nature. All that was needed were stem cells, writes H1.
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can be manipulated to become mature cells with special functions.
"Our mouse embryo model not only develops a brain, but also a beating heart, all the components that make up the body," said lead study author Magdalena Zernika-Getts, professor of mammalian development and stem cell biology at the University of Cambridge in the UK. reports CNN.
She pointed out that it is incredible that they have come this far, adding that this has been their dream and the main focus of their work for a decade.
"The work is an exciting advance and addresses a challenge scientists face when studying mammalian embryos in the womb," said Marian Broner, a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who was not involved in the study.
She added that such embryos develop outside the mother and therefore can easily be visualized through critical developmental stages that were previously difficult to access.
By looking at embryos in the lab instead of in the womb, scientists have gained better insight into the process to learn why some pregnancies may fail and how to prevent it, Zernika-Getts added.
"So far, researchers have only been able to monitor the development of synthetic mouse embryos for about eight days, but the process is improving and they are already learning a lot," said study author Gianluca Amadei, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.
The research is not in humans and "there needs to be a high degree of improvement for this to be really useful," said Benoit Bruno, director and senior researcher at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, who was not involved in the study.
Future use
"The process can be used immediately to test new drugs," said Zernika-Getts.
She added that in the long term, as scientists move from synthetic mouse embryos to a human embryo model, it could help build synthetic organs for people who need transplants.
"I see this work as the first example of this kind of work," said study author David Glover, a professor of biology and biological engineering at Caltech.
Before moving on to human synthetic embryos, it is necessary to pay attention to ethical and legal issues, added Zernika-Gets.
And given the differences in complexity between mouse and human embryos, it could be decades before researchers are able to do a similar process for human models, Broner said.
Meanwhile, information gained from mouse models could help "repair damaged tissues and organs," Zernika-Gets concluded.
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