Scientists have created artificial human embryos

A team of scientists from Britain and the United States have claimed to have created the world’s first artificial human embryo.

It suggests that artificial human embryo-like structures created from stem cells, without eggs and sperm, are currently at a very early stage of human development. Guardian.

No heart or brain

“By reprogramming we can create models like the human embryo [embryonala stam]cells,” he said Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz As he described the work on Wednesday, writes The Guardian

A professor at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, he spoke about the research at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Boston.

The Human embryo-like models For example, they do not have the beginnings of a beating heart or brain, which normally contain the cells that make up the placenta, yolk sac, and embryo.

Help with research

However, according to the researchers, they may one day help us better understand the effects of genetic diseases or the biological causes of recurrent miscarriages.

Biotechnologists are fascinated by the speed at which new discoveries are being made in the field and how sophisticated these models already are.

Raises legal issues

Since most countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, have no laws governing the creation and treatment of artificial embryos, this research raises not only ethical but also legal questions.

“Unlike human embryos obtained from in vitro fertilization, IVF, there are currently no clear rules governing stem cell-derived samples of human embryos in the established legal framework,” he says. James BriscoeFrancis, associate director of research at the Crick Institute, writes in a statement CNN.

He adds that there is an urgent need for regulations to set up a framework for the creation and use of models of human embryos generated from stem cells.

Understand embryonic development better

There are no short-term plans for when artificial embryos will be used clinically, and it is not yet clear whether they will continue to develop beyond the first stages of development.

It is illegal to implant them into a patient’s uterus.

Since real human embryos can be grown in the lab for only 14 days, the researchers’ motivation for this work was to better understand embryo development.

After that, fetal development can only be seen by looking at pregnancy scans and embryos donated for research.

Speaking at the annual meeting in Boston, Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz described how artificial embryos grown by her team have reached a stage similar to that of a natural embryo over 14 days of development.

“If you can actually model normal human embryonic development with stem cells, you can get enormous information about how our development begins and what can go wrong without using early embryos for research,” he says. Robin Lovell badge to The Guardian.

He is Chair of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

reached the stomach

Embryo-like specimens have reached a milestone in development, the beginning of a stage called gastrulation.

This is the stage where the embryo changes from being a single layer of cells to form cell lines that form the basic lines of the body, and at this stage embryos do not have a heart or brain.

At this stage, embryo samples show the presence of primordial cells, the precursor cells of eggs and sperm.

“Our human model is the first human embryo model to have three lineages representing amnion and germ cells, egg and sperm precursor cells,” Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz told the Guardian.

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