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First complete model of the human embryo

Early in development, human embryos form a structure called the blastocyst. Two research groups have now generated human blastocyst-like structures from cells in a dish, providing a valuable model for advancing human embryology.
  1. Yi Zheng

    1. Yi Zheng is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.

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  2. Jianping Fu

    1. Jianping Fu is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA, and in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan.

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A proper understanding of early human development is crucial if we are to improve assisted reproductive technologies and prevent pregnancy loss and birth defects. However, studying early development is a challenge — few human embryos are available, and research is subject to considerable ethical and legal constraints. The emergence of techniques that use cells cultured in vitro to construct models of mammalian embryos therefore opens up exciting opportunities1. Two papers in Nature now make key advances in this field, showing that human embryonic stem cells2 or cells reprogrammed from adult tissues2,3 can be induced to self-organize in a dish, forming structures that resemble early human embryos. This is the first integrated human embryo model containing cell types related to all the founding cell lineages of the fetus and its supporting tissues.

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Nature 591, 531-532 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00581-3

References

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