Mongkolchon Akesin / Shutterstock.com
An Israeli lab has created artificial mouse embryos from stem cells without the use of eggs or sperm for the first time, with hope this ground-breaking research could one day be used to ethically grow human organs for transplants.
This innovation represents the first time that an advanced animal embryo has been created from only stem cells. The research was led by Prof. Jacob Hanna and a team consisting of Jewish and Arab Israelis, alongside Palestinian doctoral students. Previous research has never been able to produce a full embryonic structure, however, with this breakthrough these structures could be used to produce cells for advanced medical solutions.
Prof. Hanna stated: “There was no sperm, no egg and no uterus, but we managed to get embryos formed from stem cells alone to eight days – a third of the gestation period of a mouse – with a beating heart”.
For a long time, scientists have been researching how to use stem cells to grow organs for transplants, but these often face ethical dilemmas due to how these stem cells are sourced. Prof. Hanna believes these new embryos solves this dilemma as these embryos are not viable for implantation and can be grown from sick patients and used to create new organs from their skin or blood cells. He added: “Nobody has made advanced embryos from stem cells, ever, so this is significant. This will both advance understanding of stem cells and organs in mammals, and is likely to have practical significance in the future”.
