SCIENTISTS claim they have created totally “synthetic” human embryos out of stem cells, without using eggs or sperm.
It could allow them to study how babies develop during pregnancy and learn how to battle genetic disorders and miscarriages.
GettyScientists say it is possible to create a human embryo without using sperm or eggs (Stock image)[/caption]
The experiments were carried out in the USA by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, The Guardian reported.
Research on human embryos is not currently legal in the UK.
It is currently unclear whether the embryos were able to mature into viable babies and they are believed to have been destroyed two weeks after creation.
Prof Zernicka-Goetz said: “We can create human embryo-like models by the reprogramming of embryonic stem cells.”
Stem cells are a type of blank cell in the human body that have the potential to turn into any type of blood, organ, tissue, bone or hair.
They are a promising area of medical research because they can, in theory, be programmed to turn into blood or organs for transplant, for example, or be used in cancer treatment.
Experimenting on embryos is not allowed in Britain because of the potential to create life that would suffer from serious disease or deformity because of mistakes.
Because of this, scientists do not have a good understanding of how babies develop in the womb or why many pregnancies miscarry.
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Institute, told BBC Radio 4 that the aim of the research was to try and model early human development so it can be studied.
He said: “What you’re trying to do is model early human development.
“So these structures that have been made so far are clearly not perfect models of human development, because they don’t go that far.
“However, the whole intention is to devise ways of making them more and more perfect models.”
Dr Ildem Akerman, from the University of Birmingham, added that “in theory, these cells also have the potential to develop into an embryo“.
She said: “This report suggests that there is now proof that human embryonic stem cells can potentially become embryos.
“Recently scientists developed methods to keep IVF embryos alive in a dish for 14 days, and these findings confirm that the technology is now available to mimic the first 14 days of development outside the womb.”
She said the work has “significant implications” and “will provide scientists with a model to investigate the events that occur during the initial 14 days of life”.
She added: “Up until now, we have only been able to observe such processes in animal models like zebrafish and mice.”
The research has not yet been reviewed by other scientists or published in a journal.
It comes after it was recently revealed that at least one baby in the UK has been born after a high-tech IVF procedure called mitochondrial donation.