Scientists take a step towards creating artificial embryos

LONDON –

An international team of scientists has moved closer to creating artificial embryos after using mouse stem cells to fabricate structures able to take a crucial step in the development of life.

could be created in the same way in the future – a step that would allow scientists to use artificial embryos rather than actual embryos to look for the earliest stages of human development.

The team, led by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, professor at the UK, Cambridge University had previously created a simpler structure resembling a mouse embryo in a lab dish. This work involved two types of stem cells and a three-dimensional scaffold on which they could develop.

But in a new work published Monday in the journal Nature Cell Biology scientists have developed structures using three types of stem cells – allowing a process called gastrulation, an essential step in which embryonic cells they self-organize in a proper structure for the formation of an embryo.

"Our artificial embryos have undergone the most important event of the flat life," Zernicka-Goetz said in a statement on the work. "They are now extremely close to real embryos."

She said that the team should now be better able to understand how the three types of stem cells interact to allow the development of the embryo. And by experimentally altering the biological pathways in a cell type, they should be able to see how this affects the behavior of other cell types.

"The early stages of embryo development are when a large part of the pregnancies are lost." We now have a way to simulate embryonic development in the dish of culture, so it should be possible to understand exactly what is going on during this remarkable period, "said Zernicka-Goetz.In the life of an embryo, and why sometimes this process fails."

Christophe Galichet, senior researcher at l 39; Francis Crick Institute of Britain who was not directly involved in this work, agreed that the results were promising.

[this study] did not use human stem cells, it is not an exaggeration to think that the technique could one day be applied to the study of early human embryos, "he said. declared in a comment sent by email. "These self-assembled human embryos would be an invaluable tool for understanding early human development."