Research Discovers New Insights on Gastrulation in Early Human Embryonic Development

Studies on human embryos have been among the most debated topic throughout the history of biological research. But while the scientific community is in between using laboratory embryos for theories and gathering strong evidence on human development, the advancements in the field did not stop experts from getting closer to obtaining comprehensive knowledge they did not have before.

14-Day Rule and Embryos in Studies of Early Human Development

(Photo: Ed Uthman, MD / WikiCommons)

Along with the most-essential concepts on the growing laboratory, embryos is the famous '14-day rule.' Recent findings through the approach allowed many experts to stay in the course of progression in the studies of embryonic fetal life. With that said, scientists who are either pro or against the subject of early human development met halfway through a rule. Some prestigious organizations and countries even paved a way to construct a law situated on the same rule to regulate and sustain both scientific and ethical standards.

A new study on the initial phases of the crucial and meticulous human development had been recently conducted, giving additional insights to the previous findings over matter. The research was made possible through a series of observations on the third week after fertilization, a stage in which the maturation of the embryo is imperative. The biological society finds it controversial not just because of the challenging process it takes to study the phase, but also because of the balance between the ethical and practical reasons that are commonly implicated with the subject.

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The researchers were able to observe an embryo that was is in the age between 16 to 19 days. The same embryo was known to have been donated by an individual who, due to personal condition, decided to shift away from pregnancy and let go of the embryo.

Even though there are numerous studies associated with understanding how the early development of human embryos goes through, there is still a massive gap in between concepts due to the lack of data from the specified stage. In addition, many people commonly miss the confirmation of their pregnancy during this phase of the embryo. Unfortunately, this is among the many reasons why global and local health regulations do not allow laboratories to grow embryos that exceed an age of 14 days.

Advancements in Embryonic Research: Gastrulation

The latest research that was conducted by European experts allowed us to grasp a new perspective on the phase that begins right after the 14-day mark of the embryo. This stage is known as gastrulation, in which the embryo scales to the size of a poppy seed and maintains this structure in just a few days before changing appearance.

University of Oxford's developmental biology expert and author of the study Shankar Srinivas said in an Indian Express report that the gastrulation stage is an example of a process that presents a complex cell diversity. The expert added that the explosion of cells during the embryonic stage contains various combinations of cells that eventually align to their respective designation to become organs that ultimately form the human body.

Authorities in the United Kingdom passed a law concerning the 14-day rule, which conjoins every scientific and ethical practice halfway, but since the embryo in the new study was not grown in a laboratory, the paper was not subjected under the regulation. Many organizations, including the International Society for Stem Cell Research, are still pushing to ease the strict mandates on the studies of early human development up to this date. The study titled "Single-cell transcriptomic characterization of a gastrulating human embryo" was published in the journal Nature.