A wave of stem-cell systems are enabling researchers to unpick what happens after an embryo implants in the uterus.
Cells in culture typically form continuous sheets, like skin. But in 2017, bioengineer Jianping Fu realized that if he cultured human stem cells in a 3D scaffold, they would spontaneously organize into structures that looked, under a microscope, a bit like an embryo. Gene-expression analyses suggested the cells were similar to those in an embryo immediately after it implants in the uterus, meaning they could serve as experimental models for a previously opaque point in early development.
Researchers have long sought to observe and study these developmental stages. But working with human embryos has always been technically and ethically fraught. Animal models go only so far in mimicking humans. Natural human embryos, donated by people undergoing fertility treatment, are hard to come by. And until May this year, scientists were barred from culturing such embryos in the laboratory for longer than two weeks after fertilization.
Various embryo-like models exist. They include blastoids, which mimic the stages before the embryo implants into the uterus, and gastruloids, which model formation of the body plan and organ precursors. Others include tissues that surround the embryo, such as the yolk sac and amniotic cavity , and some recapitulate the early steps of brain, spinal-cord and heart formation, which occurs around day 22 of human development.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Ancient humans might have bred one of the scariest birds on the planetEgg shell fragments reveal that as early as 18,000 years ago, humans on New Guinea may have been hatching a dangerous bird called the cassowary.
Lire la suite »
Richard Leakey, trailblazing conservationist and fossil hunter, dies at 77“His legacy is huge in many fields, not simply in the field of human evolution studies,” said family biographer Virginia Morell. “He was a force to be reckoned with.”
Lire la suite »
Cooperation, Survival, Open Source, and Decriminalizing Caring | Hacker NoonA story of how the Indigenous critiques of the West and early free software community development converge to question the freedoms we value.
Lire la suite »
Slender model claims she’s forced to wear ‘fat suit’ for plus-sized adsThe model said she was exposing “a secret from the modeling industry” and showed how she transforms into a “plus-size model.”
Lire la suite »
The Mules Behind the High-Performance Engines of Formula 1These performance engines are all based on the development of early mules. 🤖 engineering
Lire la suite »
Tesla Delivered Over 936,000 Vehicles In 2021, Up Nearly 90 Percent From 2020 | CarscoopsThe Model 3 and Model Y accounted for the vast majority of deliveries, with 911,208 examples being handed over to customers
Lire la suite »