Artificial womb rat embryos grown for 11 days

A team of molecular genetics research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel succeeded in growing mouse embryos in vitro for 11 and a half days. It is said that it is the first time in the world that it has succeeded in raising mammalian embryos for this period.

Immediately after removal, the researchers filled the rat embryos into a glass container and grown them in a liquid temperature-controlled to 37 degrees Celsius. The container always rotates so that the embryo does not come into contact with the wall, and oxygen is supplied through a ventilator-like structure.

Rat fetuses grow in their mother’s womb for 20 days until birth. Rat embryos form all the tissues and organs that make up the body in the first third of 20 days, and by the 11th day, the fetus has grown to an almost complete state. However, the fetus around 11 days old was no longer able to survive due to congestion of nutrients in the surrounding fluid without a mother’s blood supply. As the next technical task, the research team revealed that, for example, there is a method of artificially supplying blood from the placenta of a mother mouse.

However, the research team is not trying to grow the embryo into a fetus until childbirth. The original purpose is to find out how genetic variation and environmental conditions affect the growth of the fetus in the womb. The research team is already growing more than 1,000 embryos. Further research could be helpful in clarifying and understanding the causes of miscarriage and why fertilization fails.

There are also ethical or political issues, but it could be said that there is a possibility that a different set of organs can be prepared to grow rat embryos so that one day human embryos can be raised, where in the future, tissues for transplantation can be removed and used for cancer treatment. Related information can be found here.