2023-06-15 17:59:00
Os first synthetic human embryos were created in the laboratory using stem-cells. This news was announced by scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States during the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) this week.
In general, these embryos bear similarities to early stages of human development and isos may help provide unprecedented information regarding genetic disorders or causes of miscarriages. The work was described by professor at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz:
They are models of embryos, but they are very exciting because they are very similar to human embryos and a very important way to find out why so many pregnancies fail, as most pregnancies fail at the time of development when we build these structures.
The researcher also explained that the cultivation of embryos from embryonic stem cells occurred even a little beyond the period that would be equivalent to 14 days of development. The model even showed primordial cells that are the precursors of the oculus and sperm.
Even so, the embryo does not yet have a beating heart at this stage, as well as a gut or the beginnings of a brain. The aim of this study is to identify genetic mechanisms and furthermore, there is no perspective for use in clinical practice. Incidentally, this would be prohibited in the countries where the work is being conducted.
Kathryn MacKay is a professor of health ethics at the University of Syndey, Australia, and commented on the issue of understanding whether the model created in the laboratory might develop:
There is a moral issue involved in creating something for research that may or may not have the potential to live on as its own complete entity. If they can live as their own full entities, then we must ask whether it is morally permissible to create living beings just for research purposes. At the moment, animal models suggest that these synthetic embryos would not be able to develop into a human baby.
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