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Scientists have discovered a way to stop the growth of human embryos in a possible medical breakthrough.
The team narrowed it down and found it. By acting on certain chains of biological reactions involved in the growth of the embryo, they managed to temporarily prevent a fertilized embryo from implanting in the wall of the uterus until conditions were favorable.
By reducing the production of a protein involved in embryo growth, they were able to temporarily stop the growth of the fertilized embryo in its early stages, about a week after conception.
The researchers were able to keep the embryos in this dormant state for 18 days, after which they reversed the pause to resume normal growth.
Researchers say this technique could be used to increase the success of IVF by creating a broader time window to evaluate the health of the embryo and improve the chances of implantation in the uterus.
Researchers have shown that reducing the activity of the mTOR signaling pathway keeps stem and blastoid cells in a diapause-like latency.
More than 130 species of mammals – from bears to mice – have the ability to do this. Temporarily stops fetal development in a process called Embryonic diapause.
This usually occurs in the blastocyst stage, when a fertilized egg rapidly divides into a ball of cells called a blastocyst. This initial stage of development begins about five or six days after fertilization.
A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin and the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna has discovered a way to artificially trigger a diapause-like state in human stem cells and blastoids, which are laboratory. -grown blastocysts.
In both stem cells and blastoids, researchers have altered the activity of a specific chain of reactions, also known as a molecular cascade.
A molecular cascade is when the movement of one molecule triggers the movement of another molecule and so on. This starts a series of cascading chemical reactions.
It works similar to a row of falling dominoes, where each falling domino causes the next to fall.
The pathway the researchers targeted is called the mTOR signaling pathway. It regulates metabolism, growth, proliferation and cell survival and plays an important role in fetal growth and development.
Research results can improve the effectiveness of reproductive health treatments, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
When the researchers inhibited the mTOR signaling pathway, the stem cells and blastoids entered a diapause-like dormancy state.
The study results show that the ability to enter a dormant state is activated in human cells around the blastocyst stage, the researchers wrote in their report.
Furthermore, they found that they could reverse this after a while, allowing the blastoids to resume normal development.
And when they increased the activity of the mTOR pathway, they found that fetal development accelerated.
They published their research this month in the journal. cell.
This research has discovered a new way to control the growth of human pregnancies.
Study co-author Nicolas Rivron, from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said: “Although we have lost the ability to enter a normal state of dormancy, these experiments indicate that we retain this internal ability and eventually we will be able to let go. of Sciences of Vienna in a statement.
Learning how to harness this hidden ability within our cells could have important implications for reproductive health treatments like IVF.
“On the one hand, rapid development is known to increase the success rate of in vitro fertilization, and increasing mTOR activity can achieve this,” Rivron explained.
“On the other hand, triggering a dormant state during an IVF procedure can allow more time to evaluate the health of the embryo and synchronize it with the mother for better implantation within the uterus,” he added.
Our ability to control this process and safely induce diapause during IVF requires more research, but researchers are hopeful that this work could lead to advances in reproductive health treatments.
