Israeli scientists make synthetic embryo w/o fertilized egg
Sept 6, 2023 19:11:30 GMT -5
Post by shalom on Sept 6, 2023 19:11:30 GMT -5
I can't even begin to imagine the moral and ethical ramifications of this!
Israeli scientists make synthetic embryo without fertilized egg - study
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Published: SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 20:02
Updated: SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 22:13Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
In a study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, recently published in Cell under the title “Ex utero synthetic embryos,” embryo models of mice were created outside the uterus solely with stem cells cultured in a petri dish – that is, without the use of fertilized eggs. The researchers have developed ex-utero mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived embryo-like structures called synthetic embryos.
The method opens new horizons for studying how stem cells form various organs in the developing embryo and may one day make it possible to grow tissues and organs for transplantation using synthetic embryo models. The embryo had a beating heart, a yolk sac, a placenta and an emerging circulation of blood on the eighth day of its existence.
“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter – we tried to emulate what it does.”
Prof. Jacob Hanna
“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter – we tried to emulate what it does,” said Prof. Jacob Hanna of Weizmann’s molecular genetics department who headed the research team. He explained that scientists already know how to restore mature cells with specific functions to an unprogrammed “stemness” state – pioneers of this cellular reprogramming won a Nobel Prize for this back in 2012.
But going in the opposite direction – causing stem cells to differentiate into specialized body cells and even form entire organs has proved much more difficult. “Until now, in most studies, the specialized cells were often either hard to produce or abnormal, and they tended to form a mishmash instead of well-structured tissue suitable for transplantation. We managed to overcome these hurdles by unleashing the self-organization potential encoded in the stem cells,” Hanna said.
His team built on two previous advances that had been achieved in his lab. One was an efficient method for reprogramming stem cells back to a naïve state – that is, to their earliest stage – when they have the greatest potential to specialize into different cell types. The other, published in Nature in March 2021, was the electronically controlled device that the team had developed over seven years for growing natural mouse embryos outside the womb. The device keeps the embryos bathed in a nutrient solution inside of beakers that move continuously, simulating the way nutrients are supplied by material blood flow to the placenta, and closely controls oxygen exchange and atmospheric pressure. In the earlier research, the team had successfully used this device to grow natural mouse embryos from the fifth day to the 11th.
A growing mouse neural stem cell, April 21, 2017. (credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr)
A growing mouse neural stem cell, April 21, 2017. (credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr)
How to build a synthetic embryo
In the new study, the team set out to grow a synthetic embryo model solely from naïve mouse stem cells that had been cultured for years in a petri dish, eliminating the need to start with a fertilized egg. “This approach is extremely valuable because it could, to a large extent, bypass the technical and ethical issues involved in the use of natural embryos in research and biotechnology. Even in the case of mice, certain experiments can’t be carried out because they would require thousands of embryos, while access to models derived from mouse embryonic cells that grow in lab incubators by the millions, is virtually unlimited,” Hanna said.
Before placing the stem cells into the device, the researchers separated them into three groups. In one, which contained cells intended to develop into embryonic organs themselves, the cells were left as they were. Cells in the other two groups were pretreated for only 48 hours to overexpress one of two types of genes: master regulators of either the placenta or the yolk sac.
Soon after being mixed together inside the device, the three groups of cells convened into aggregates, the vast majority of which failed to develop properly. But about 0.5 percent – 50 of around 10,000 – went on to form spheres, each of which later became an elongated, embryo-like structure. Since the researchers had labeled each group of cells with a different color, they were able to observe the placenta and yolk sacs forming outside the embryos and the model’s development proceeding as in a natural embryo.
These synthetic models developed normally until day 8.5 – nearly half of the mouse 20-day gestation – at which stage all the early organ progenitors had formed, including a beating heart, blood stem cell circulation, a brain with well-shaped folds, a neural tube, and an intestinal tract. When compared to natural mouse embryos, the synthetic models displayed a 95% similarity in both the shape of internal structures and the gene expression patterns of different cell types. The organs seen in the models gave every indication of being functional.
For Hanna and other stem cell and embryonic development researchers, the study presents a new challenge. “Our next challenge is to understand how stem cells know what to do – how they self-assemble into organs and find their way to their assigned spots inside an embryo. And because our system, unlike a womb, is transparent, it may prove useful for modeling birth and implantation defects of human embryos.”
In addition to helping to reduce the use of animals in research, synthetic embryo models might in the future become a reliable source of cells, tissues and organs for transplantation. According to Hanna, “instead of developing a different protocol for growing each cell type – for example, those of the kidney or liver – we may one day be able to create a synthetic embryo-like model and then isolate the cells we need. We won’t need to dictate to the emerging organs how they must develop. The embryo itself does this best.”
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Israeli scientists make synthetic embryo without fertilized egg - study
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Published: SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 20:02
Updated: SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 22:13Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
In a study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, recently published in Cell under the title “Ex utero synthetic embryos,” embryo models of mice were created outside the uterus solely with stem cells cultured in a petri dish – that is, without the use of fertilized eggs. The researchers have developed ex-utero mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived embryo-like structures called synthetic embryos.
The method opens new horizons for studying how stem cells form various organs in the developing embryo and may one day make it possible to grow tissues and organs for transplantation using synthetic embryo models. The embryo had a beating heart, a yolk sac, a placenta and an emerging circulation of blood on the eighth day of its existence.
“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter – we tried to emulate what it does.”
Prof. Jacob Hanna
“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter – we tried to emulate what it does,” said Prof. Jacob Hanna of Weizmann’s molecular genetics department who headed the research team. He explained that scientists already know how to restore mature cells with specific functions to an unprogrammed “stemness” state – pioneers of this cellular reprogramming won a Nobel Prize for this back in 2012.
But going in the opposite direction – causing stem cells to differentiate into specialized body cells and even form entire organs has proved much more difficult. “Until now, in most studies, the specialized cells were often either hard to produce or abnormal, and they tended to form a mishmash instead of well-structured tissue suitable for transplantation. We managed to overcome these hurdles by unleashing the self-organization potential encoded in the stem cells,” Hanna said.
His team built on two previous advances that had been achieved in his lab. One was an efficient method for reprogramming stem cells back to a naïve state – that is, to their earliest stage – when they have the greatest potential to specialize into different cell types. The other, published in Nature in March 2021, was the electronically controlled device that the team had developed over seven years for growing natural mouse embryos outside the womb. The device keeps the embryos bathed in a nutrient solution inside of beakers that move continuously, simulating the way nutrients are supplied by material blood flow to the placenta, and closely controls oxygen exchange and atmospheric pressure. In the earlier research, the team had successfully used this device to grow natural mouse embryos from the fifth day to the 11th.
A growing mouse neural stem cell, April 21, 2017. (credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr)
A growing mouse neural stem cell, April 21, 2017. (credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr)
How to build a synthetic embryo
In the new study, the team set out to grow a synthetic embryo model solely from naïve mouse stem cells that had been cultured for years in a petri dish, eliminating the need to start with a fertilized egg. “This approach is extremely valuable because it could, to a large extent, bypass the technical and ethical issues involved in the use of natural embryos in research and biotechnology. Even in the case of mice, certain experiments can’t be carried out because they would require thousands of embryos, while access to models derived from mouse embryonic cells that grow in lab incubators by the millions, is virtually unlimited,” Hanna said.
Before placing the stem cells into the device, the researchers separated them into three groups. In one, which contained cells intended to develop into embryonic organs themselves, the cells were left as they were. Cells in the other two groups were pretreated for only 48 hours to overexpress one of two types of genes: master regulators of either the placenta or the yolk sac.
Soon after being mixed together inside the device, the three groups of cells convened into aggregates, the vast majority of which failed to develop properly. But about 0.5 percent – 50 of around 10,000 – went on to form spheres, each of which later became an elongated, embryo-like structure. Since the researchers had labeled each group of cells with a different color, they were able to observe the placenta and yolk sacs forming outside the embryos and the model’s development proceeding as in a natural embryo.
These synthetic models developed normally until day 8.5 – nearly half of the mouse 20-day gestation – at which stage all the early organ progenitors had formed, including a beating heart, blood stem cell circulation, a brain with well-shaped folds, a neural tube, and an intestinal tract. When compared to natural mouse embryos, the synthetic models displayed a 95% similarity in both the shape of internal structures and the gene expression patterns of different cell types. The organs seen in the models gave every indication of being functional.
For Hanna and other stem cell and embryonic development researchers, the study presents a new challenge. “Our next challenge is to understand how stem cells know what to do – how they self-assemble into organs and find their way to their assigned spots inside an embryo. And because our system, unlike a womb, is transparent, it may prove useful for modeling birth and implantation defects of human embryos.”
In addition to helping to reduce the use of animals in research, synthetic embryo models might in the future become a reliable source of cells, tissues and organs for transplantation. According to Hanna, “instead of developing a different protocol for growing each cell type – for example, those of the kidney or liver – we may one day be able to create a synthetic embryo-like model and then isolate the cells we need. We won’t need to dictate to the emerging organs how they must develop. The embryo itself does this best.”
link