Using a novel stem cell model, scientists have advanced our understanding of gastrulation—a critical early stage of human development—offering new insights that could improve outcomes in pregnancy and the understanding of developmental disorders. The image above shows a blastoid, a stem cell model system that allows scientists to study the nuances of human gastrulation.
The question was whether blastoids could gastrulate in vitro. Unlike a blastocyst in vivo, which rolls around in the uterus until it attaches to maternal tissue, blastoids were good at modeling the ball of cells from which life emerges, but it remained unclear whether this in vitro model could model later stages of human development. That is, until Brivanlou developed a platform to allow blastoids to attach in vitro, and thereby progress toward gastrulation.
The primitive streak is a structure that marks the beginning of gastrulation and lays the foundation for the three primary layers of the embryo. One of those layers, the mesoderm, forms during gastrulation and gives rise to muscles, bones, and the circulatory system. The team discovered that, as early as seven days after attachment, they were already able to use molecular markers to detect the earliest signature of a nascent primitive streak and mesodermal cells.
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