Scientists Create Embryo Without Sperm or Egg, Built in a Mouse Womb in the Lab

Dutch scientists for the first time created ‘synthetic’ embryos in their laboratory using mouse cells without recourse to eggs or sperm. In experiments, bundles of mouse stem cells – one type corresponding to the placenta, another to the embryo – self-organised into proto-embryos and initiated pregnancies when implanted into mouse wombs. The stem cell breakthrough described in journal Nature is not for cloning people or animals, but about understanding why many pregnancies fail at an early stage of implantation.

The embryos, made in a dish, attached to the womb lining of live female mice and grew for few days. Studying the process could help human fertility, experts say. The procedure was not expected to create a viable embryo and did not do so but could yield important insights into fertility and the earliest phases of life. “This breakthrough has opened up the black box of early pregnancy,” says lead author Nicolas Rivron, a researcher at MERLN and Hubrecht Institutes in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He further added, “These early embryos have all the cell types required to form a whole organism. They will help us better understand the hidden processes at the start of life, to find solutions for fertility problems, and to develop new drugs without the use of lab animals.”

Many miscarriages occur before a woman is even aware that she is pregnant. Experts have not been able to fully understand the reason behind this, although it is likely to be linked to abnormalities in the growing embryo. Using stem cells, rather than sperm and eggs, to make model embryos could offer a plentiful supple for scientific research. Dr Rivron said there were no plans yet to repeat the results using human stem cells. That would require approval.

Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, an expert at the UK’s Francis Crick Institute said the prospects for obtaining human embryo-like structure in this way was currently very remote. He also said, “It may come as a relief to others that such a method of producing many genetically identical human embryo-like structures that might be capable of implantation is not feasible – even if it would be illegal to implant them into women, as is clearly the situation in the UK.”

Although, other doctors are hailing at this success as it was the most successful attempt so far at building an early embryo from stem cell lines. Dr. Dusko Ilic, a stem cell expert at King’s College London said, “This is the first time that scientists have been able to shed a light on the molecular mechanisms of implantation and these finding may help us to understand more about some aspects of infertility and improve outcomes of assisted reproduction.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 09:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).