1st synthetic mouse embryos -- complete with beating hearts and brains -- created with no sperm, eggs

1st synthetic mouse embryos — complete with beating hearts and brains — created with no sperm, eggs or womb

By Nicoletta Lanese published 3 days ago

This is the first time such embryos have been made.




For the first time, scientists have created mouse embryos in the lab without using any eggs or sperm and watched them grow outside the womb. To achieve this feat, the researchers used only stem cells and a spinning device filled with shiny glass vials.

The experiment is a "game changer," Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who was not involved in the research, told The Washington Post(opens in new tab).

"This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves," he said.

The breakthrough experiment, described in a report published Monday (Aug. 1) in the journal Cell(opens in new tab), took place in a specially designed bioreactor that serves as an artificial womb for developing embryos. Within the device, embryos float in small beakers of nutrient-filled solution, and the beakers are all locked into a spinning cylinder that keeps them in constant motion. This movement simulates how blood and nutrients flow to the placenta. The device also replicates the atmospheric pressure of a mouse uterus, according to a statement(opens in new tab) from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where the research was conducted.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/synthetic-mouse-embryos