Mumbai, September 6: Scientists have reportedly said to have grown an entity which closely resembles an early human embryo. Scientists have developed the human embryo model without using sperm, eggs or a womb. Speaking about the newly developed human embryo model, the Weizmann Institute team said that the "embryo model" was allegedly made using stem cells. The human embryo model resembles a textbook example of a real-life 14-day-old embryo.

According to a report in BBC, the scientists did not use a sperm, an egg or a womb to develop the human embryo. The whole human embryo model was developed using stem cells by scientists in Israel. The newly developed human embryo is also said to have released hormones, which reportedly turned a pregnancy test positive in the laboratory. No Egg, No Sperm Needed For Baby? World's First Synthetic Human Embryos Created; Team of Scientists Creates Synthetic Human Embryo-Like Structures From Stem Cells.

Scientists who made the whole new human embryo said that the ambition for "embryo models" is to understand the earliest moments of human lives. The study also found that the first few weeks after a sperm fertilises an egg is a period of dramatic change. The whole process goes from a collection of indistinct cells to a unique thing that eventually becomes recognisable on a baby scan.

Scientists also said that the crucial time is a major source of miscarriage and birth defects, which are poorly understood. "It's a black box and that's not a cliche - our knowledge is very limited," Prof Jacob Hanna of Weizmann Institute of Science said. The research about the new human embryo model has been published in the journal Nature.

The team of Israeli scientists describe the new human embryo model as the first "complete" embryo model to mimic all the key structures which emerge in the early human embryo. "This is really a textbook image of a human day-14 embryo, which hasn't been done before," Prof Hanna added. So, how did scientists develop the new human embryo? Human Embryo With Heartbeat Created! UK Scientists Create New Human Embryo Model With Its Own Heartbeat.

Instead of using a sperm or an egg, scientists in Israel used naive stem cells as the starting material to develop the new human embryo model. The naive stem cells were later transformed into four types of cells, mainly epiblast cells, trophoblast cells, hypoblast cells and extraembryonic mesoderm cells. The scientists then mixed a total of 120 cells and let them grow.

The cells began to develop and reportedly formed an embryo-like structure. One can read the complete research, which has been published in the journal Nature, here.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 06, 2023 08:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).