Early Meetings

The first moments of pregnancy are marked by fragile milestones – when cells implanted in the womb send chemical signals to the rest of an embryo, directing its growth. This environment is so delicate that watching under a microscope without causing disruption is challenging. Instead, here scientists recreate part of the story with lab-grown cells. They introduce a cluster of trophoblast cells (similar to those found around the implanted embryo) to a cluster of early embryonic cells similar to an epiblast, and watch what happens under a high-powered microscope. Contact with the trophoblast cells (highlighted in green) switches on a set of proteins known as T/Bra (highlighted in red) in the epiblast – in real embryos this signals gastrulation, where cells form distinct layers towards becoming tissues. Such lab-grown ‘embryoids’ may allow researchers to get a better picture of the early changes in studies of fertility and development.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

Website

• Video from work by Mehmet U. Girgin and colleagues
• Laboratory of Stem Cell Bioengineering, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, August 2021