Scientists created synthetic mouse embryos from stem cells.
5Scientists created synthetic mouse embryos from stem cells.
The statement said that while not all of them are perfect, the best are 'indistinguishable' from natural mouse embryos.
To create the embryos produced as part of the research, published in The Journal Nature, scientists combined immature stem cells from mice and two different types of stem cells.
One of the study's authors, stem cell biologist Zernicka-Goetz, said that while not all of the embryos they created were perfect, the best were "indistinguishable" from natural mouse embryos.
Goetz stated that the aim of the study is to better understand the early stages of development and to avoid the need to use large numbers of animals as test subjects to examine the mechanisms behind diseases.
Noting that natural development is difficult to study for many reasons, including too few human embryos being donated for research and scientists face ethical constraints, Goetz noted that creating embryo models is an alternative way to study these issues.
Goetz stated that one of the reasons for examining the early stages of development is the early loss of the embryo in many pregnancies.
Scientists stated that the synthetic embryos produced in this study showed the same development as natural mouse embryos up to 8.5 days, and they hoped the next step would be 20 days.