Synthetic embryos built by scientists to understand failed pregnancies

Nature Journal reports that Dutch scientists have built synthetic embryos to understand why pregnancies can fail at an early stage and hope their work will help human fertility. But to overcome the ethical element, they are not using sperm or egg cells.
Experts don’t fully know whether abnormalities in the growing embryo are the reason why many miscarriages occur when the fertilised egg can’t implant into the womb. Making model embryos from stem cells rather than sperm and eggs will hopefully provide sufficient supply for research to be undertaken to get a better understanding.

Dr Nicolas Rivron, from the Merlin Institute of Maastricht University, and his team who created the embryo-like structures said “We can now generate extremely large numbers of these embryos and study them in detail. It could help us understand why some embryos fail to implant and let us screen for drugs that might help with fertility.”

Dr Dusko Ilic, a stem cell expert at King’s College London, said: “This is the first time that scientists have been able to shed a light on the molecular mechanisms of implantation and these findings may help us to understand more about some aspects of infertility and improve outcomes of assisted reproduction.”