Mouse embryos grow in space for the first time – 10/29/2023 – Science

Mouse embryos grew and developed normally on the International Space Station (ISS), in a first study that indicates human reproduction in space would be possible, a group of Japanese scientists said.

In August 2021, researchers sent frozen mouse embryos to the ISS, where astronauts thawed them with a specially designed device and cultured them for four days.

“Embryos grown in microgravity conditions developed” normally into blastocysts, cellular structures that become the fetus and placenta, the scientists said.

The group of researchers was formed, among others, by professor Teruhiko Wakayama, from the Center for Advanced Biotechnology at Yamanashi University, and a team from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The experiment “clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect,” researchers said in a study published online by the scientific journal iScience on Saturday.

Its authors pointed out that there were no significant changes in the conditions of DNA and genes after analysis in their laboratories of the blastocysts that were sent back to Earth.

This is “the first study carried out that shows that mammals may be capable of developing in space,” Yamanashi University and national research institute Riken said in a joint statement on Saturday.

It is “the world’s first experiment that grows early-stage mammal embryos under the full microgravity of the ISS,” they added.

“In the future, it will be necessary to transplant the blastocysts that were grown in the microgravity of the ISS into mice to see if the mouse can give birth” and thus confirm that the blastocysts developed normally, they noted.

This type of research could be important for future space exploration and colonization missions.

Under the Artemis program, NASA plans to send humans to the Moon again to learn how to live there long-term and prepare for a trip to Mars at the end of the next decade.