Embryos in a bottle
Biologists have created for the first time a transparent analogue of the uterus for mouse embryos
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
Israeli developmental biologists have discovered a way to grow mouse embryos outside the uterus for longer than ever before. Scientists have received an unprecedented opportunity to see what was previously hidden inside the maternal body: the development of mammalian organs and limbs.
Scientists from The Weizmann Institute reported on the development of a new nutrient supply system that ensures the survival and development of mouse embryos for 11 days, that is, up to half the gestation period of these animals. By that time, the animals had already formed hind limbs and all large organs, writes Science (Gretchen Vogel, No uterus, no problem: Mouse embryos grown in bottles form organs and limbs).
Article by Aguilera-Castrejon et al. Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis is published in Nature – VM.
The creation of the technology took biologists over seven years of trial and error. Previously, scientists could grow mouse embryos in the laboratory for three to four days.
However, the new system allows you to increase the time by almost a week. In addition to the nutrients in which the embryos are located, there are rotating bottles in the system that provide tiny embryos with enough oxygen and the right atmospheric pressure.
The two-stage process begins with the cultivation of embryos extracted from pregnant mice before implantation, from the fifth to the seventh day. At this time, the process of gastrulation occurs, in which they transform from hollow spherical clusters of cells into a multilayer structure of differentiated cells. The scientists then transfer the embryos into rotating bottles, in which they develop for another four days.
Biologists were also able to introduce genetic tags into certain cells of the embryo and showed that it is possible to add certain types of human nerve cells to mouse embryos. Both methods are needed in order to track the development processes.
The next stage of the research of this scientific group will be an attempt to grow an embryo created during artificial, not natural fertilization.
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