Just none of this is happening inside the body. These images were captured inside a microfluidic chip in a Beijing laboratory as scientists observed the scene.
Courtesy of researchers
In three papers published this week by Cell Press, scientists are reporting what they call the most accurate efforts yet to mimic the first moments of pregnancy in the laboratory. They have taken human embryos from IVF centers and merged them with “organoids” made from endometrial cells, which form the lining of the uterus.
The reports – two from China and the third involving a collaboration between researchers in the United Kingdom, Spain and the US – show how scientists are using engineered tissues to better understand early pregnancy and potentially improve IVF outcomes.
“You have an embryo and an endometrial organoid together,” says biologist Jun Wu of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who contributed to both Chinese reports. “This is the overarching message of all three letters.”
According to the papers, these 3D combinations are the most complete recreation of the first days of pregnancy yet and should be useful for studying why IVF treatments often fail.
In each case, the experiments were stopped when the embryos reached two weeks of age, if not before. This is due to legal and ethical regulations that generally prevent scientists from visiting for more than 14 days.
In your basic IVF procedure, an egg is fertilized in the laboratory and allowed to develop into a spherical embryo called a blastocyst – this process takes a few days. That blastocyst is then inserted into the patient’s uterus in the hope that it will establish itself there and eventually become a baby.
Courtesy of researchers
But this is a common failure point. Many patients will learn that their IVF process did not work because the embryo never attached.
