In a First, Scientists Say They Created ‘Embryo-Like’ Structures From Monkey Stem Cells

Scientists in China this week say they’ve accomplished a first in bioengineering: creating embryo-like structures from monkey stem cells. The structures were implanted in surrogate female monkeys and briefly grew but did not become viable fetuses. The research may eventually help us better understand the earliest moments of human development and how it can go awry, the study authors say.

In recent years, scientists have inched closer toward creating entire “synthetic” embryos, meaning those produced without the typical fertilization of an egg by sperm. Last year, two teams separately announced that they had created such embryos from mouse stem cells. In one study, the embryos survived for up to eight-and-a-half days and even developed the beginnings of a brain and beating heart (typical mouse gestation is 20 days).

While mice do have many similarities with humans, there are key differences in how they develop in the womb over time. It’s possible that synthetic human embryos could be created someday, but widely followed research guidelines would limit how long these embryos could ever be grown (these rules could soon become less strict in many places, though). The scientists behind this study, published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell, believe that creating and studying similar structures derived from our primate relatives might sidestep some of these ethical concerns.

Much like the research with mice, this work relied on embryonic stem cells to create embryo-like structures, which were taken from cynomolgus monkeys, also known as crab-eating macaques. Using a concoction of growth factors in the lab, they induced the stem cells to arrange themselves into blastoids, the synthetic version of a blastocyst: the early stage of development in which the embryo is a berry-like ball of cells (in humans, this happens around five days after fertilization).

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In the lab, the study authors say, the structures reached the next stage of development, called the embryonic disk, where cells began to differentiate into the embryo and external parts that would protect and nourish it, including the yolk sac. Genetic testing also found that these cells seemed to resemble the naturally produced kind.

They then decided to transfer the blastoids into eight surrogate monkeys. In the words of the researchers, three of these monkeys successfully “achieved pregnancy” as a result. The monkeys experienced similar levels of fluctuating hormones seen early on in pregnancy, and the embryo-like structures developed early gestational sacs (in humans, this sac is visible by ultrasound a few weeks after conception). Growth stopped at that point, though, and the structures eventually disappeared after about a week.

“This research has created an embryo-like system that can be induced and cultured indefinitely,” said study author Quian Sun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement released by Tsinghua University and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. “It provides new tools and perspectives for the subsequent exploration of primate embryos and reproductive medical health.”

The team plans to continue refining their method. Notably, though, they say that their structures are not capable of full development. But it’s possible these creations will allow us to study development without the ethical and practical challenges of relying on naturally obtained embryos from animals or humans, they argue. And that research could pay off in many ways down the road.

“Because monkeys are closely related to humans evolutionarily, we hope the study of these models will deepen our understanding of human embryonic development, including shedding light on some of the causes of early miscarriages,” said study author Zhen Liu, also of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement.

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