Studies carried out with human embryos in a laboratory environment are limited to only 14 days by the International Stem Cell Research Association. This puts a big limit on stem cell studies that can be applied especially in humans.
Scientists looking for alternative ways for embryo studies that will last longer than 14 days have recently broken new ground. For the first time in history, embryos created with monkey stem cells were transferred to surrogate mothers.
Monkeys briefly became pregnant with stem cell-created embryos:
Chinese scientists, focusing on macaques with the closest genetics to humans, have managed to go beyond experiments on human embryos. Scientists turned stem cells into blastoids (stem cell-based embryo model), and in the second stage, they transferred these embryos into the wombs of 8 surrogate mother monkeys.
Of course, blastoids also go through some processes before they are transferred to the mother’s womb. The scientists culture the blastoids for 7 days so that the blastoids have inner and outer cell clusters. This structure is one of the critical features found in natural embryos.
After the culturing phase, 8 to 10 blastoids are transferred to each of the surrogate mothers and 20-day hormone tests begin. According to the shared results, three of these embryo-like structures were observed to form a gestational sac a week or more after the transfer.
One week later, the entire embryonic structure disappeared. Although the studies ended here, the surrogate mothers were officially pregnant for a short time.
The research has been published in Cell Stem Cell.
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