Scientists have managed to grow the mammalian embryo outside the uterus for the first time. In a study published Wednesday in Nature, a team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, says they have successfully grown more than 1,000 mouse embryos for six days using a process that includes a mechanical device. In the first part of the experiment, the mice are removed from their mothers’ womb after five days. In an interview with The New York Times, Dr. Jacob Hanna, one of the researchers of the project, said that his team has since managed to take an embryo from a female mouse after fertilization and let it grow for 11 days. What’s more, the laboratory-grown embryos are consistently identical to their ‘real’ counterparts.
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The team manufactured the machine that made their research possible for seven years. It is a two-part system consisting of an incubator and ventilation system. Each of the embryos floats in a vial filled with a special nutrient-laden liquid. A wheel gently rotates the mice so that they do not get stuck on the wall of their temporary dwelling. This prevents the embryos from deforming and then dying. Meanwhile, the attached fan provides the mice with oxygen while maintaining the flow and pressure of their environment.
It takes about 20 days for a mouse to move to the point where it can survive outside the womb. So far, the mechanical uterus that dr. Hanna and his team created, sustaining the mice through 11 days of growth. It is at that point, in more than halfway through a regular pregnancy, that the mice die off. The embryos become too large to survive on only the nutrients they absorb through diffusion. They need blood supply, and that’s the next technical challenge the team plans to solve. One possible solution on the table contains an artificial blood supply that can connect to the placenta of mice, said dr. Hanna said The NY Times.
Before you run to the hills, you should know that the team of Dr. Hanna did not create the device to disrupt the natural order of nature. Instead, they use their process to investigate how factors such as genetic mutations and environmental conditions can affect the growth of a fetus in the womb. Until this breakthrough, scientists turned to species such as worms and frogs – that is, non-mammals – to study the development of tissues and organs. A similar device could one day make scientists grow a baby in the same way, but it is something that is years and decades away, provided it is even possible.