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Human embryo implantation modelled in microfluidic channels

An innovative microfluidic device has enabled the modelling of the events that occur in human embryos when they implant in the wall of the uterus. It could be used to help understand early pregnancy loss.
  1. Amander T. Clark

    1. Amander T. Clark is in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.

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Each year, millions of women around the world experience early pregnancy loss1. Most pregnancy losses occur in the first trimester, around the time that the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus. Our lack of understanding of why some early pregnancies fail is frustrating to women and their partners. To fill this fundamental gap in our knowledge, models of human embryo implantation are greatly needed. Writing in Nature, Zheng et al.2 report the creation of an advanced model of human embryo development that recapitulates many of the key events that happen around the time of implantation (that is, during the peri-implantation stage).

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Nature 573, 350-351 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02563-y

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