[이데일리 이현정 인턴기자] A joint US-UK research team has succeeded in creating an artificial synthetic mouse embryo using stem cells without eggs and sperm.
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According to CNN, the US broadcaster, on the 5th (local time), a British-American joint research team led by Magdalena Zernica-Goetz, a professor in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK, reported in the scientific journal Nature, “After 10 years of research, only stem cells can be used. We have succeeded in making a mouse embryo and developing organs such as the heart and brain.” Stem cells refer to undifferentiated cells at an early stage that can differentiate into various body tissues such as muscles, bones, organs, and skin. . The research team previously injected embryonic stem cells, placental stem cells, and yolk sac (a thin membrane that surrounds the embryo) stem cells into the artificial womb developed by Israeli researchers. As a result of observing this while applying pressure similar to that of a mouse’s uterus, the three types of stem cells interacted and started to create embryos.
The research team succeeded in growing embryos up to day 8.5, the stage where the heart and brain form. This is close to half the gestation period (20 days) of mice. Professor Zernica-Kötz said, “The heart was beating for a while, and the brain was almost complete. “We were able to observe the developmental process of the embryo, which could not be seen in the womb, through the stem cell embryo model,” he added.
In the medical community, it has been evaluated that the stem cell embryo model will help solve pregnancy-related problems such as infertility and infertility in the future. Jenping Fu, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in this study, said, “We have a tool that allows us to see the developmental process of an embryo after implantation in real time. big,” he said.