In Israel, stem cell researchers have created synthetic mouse embryos and grown them in an artificial womb for eight days. This new development opens a door into a potential realm of science that could one day be used to replace organs for humans.
Scientists involved with the research said that the objective is not to create anything, but to get a head start about the understanding of how organs develop in embryos and to use that knowledge to come up with new ways to heal people who might need new organs.
“This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” said Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona He called the experiment a “game changer.”
Published Monday in the journal Cell, the research is far from growing a mouse, much less a human. It was a proof of the concept that a complete synthetic embryo could be assembled from embryonic stem cells. While the researchers were successful, it was a highly error-prone process, and only a small fraction of embryos went on to develop the beginnings of a beating heart and other organs.
Though the synthetic mouse embryos bore a close resemblance to natural mouse embryos, they were not the exact same and didn’t result in pregnancies in real mice, according to Jacob Hanna, the stem cell scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who led the work.
For decades, the major hope for stem cell therapy has been to repair the body’s own tissues. Stem cells can develop into any tissue or organ, so the potential to use those cells to fix injuries and diseases is high. However, the challenge is turning those cells into complex, functioning tissue. Hanna’s hope is that watching this process unfold during early development will provide important clues.
“Our goal is not making pregnancy outside the uterus, whether it’s mice or any species,” Hanna said. “We are really facing difficulties making organs — and in order to make stem cells become organs, we need to learn how the embryo does that.”
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Scientists involved with the research said that the objective is not to create anything, but to get a head start about the understanding of how organs develop in embryos and to use that knowledge to come up with new ways to heal people who might need new organs.
“This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” said Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona He called the experiment a “game changer.”
Published Monday in the journal Cell, the research is far from growing a mouse, much less a human. It was a proof of the concept that a complete synthetic embryo could be assembled from embryonic stem cells. While the researchers were successful, it was a highly error-prone process, and only a small fraction of embryos went on to develop the beginnings of a beating heart and other organs.
Though the synthetic mouse embryos bore a close resemblance to natural mouse embryos, they were not the exact same and didn’t result in pregnancies in real mice, according to Jacob Hanna, the stem cell scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who led the work.
For decades, the major hope for stem cell therapy has been to repair the body’s own tissues. Stem cells can develop into any tissue or organ, so the potential to use those cells to fix injuries and diseases is high. However, the challenge is turning those cells into complex, functioning tissue. Hanna’s hope is that watching this process unfold during early development will provide important clues.
“Our goal is not making pregnancy outside the uterus, whether it’s mice or any species,” Hanna said. “We are really facing difficulties making organs — and in order to make stem cells become organs, we need to learn how the embryo does that.”
Source articles:
Scientists-create-synthetic-mouse-embryos-a-potential-key-to-healing-humans-The-Washington-Post-3
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