'Pause Button' Molecule Uncovered in Human Embryos


 

Mamma bears press pause on their early pregnancies, so that their cubs are born closer to a food filled spring. Researchers led by a team in Germany have now found this same pregnancy pause button exists in human cells too.

Although we have lost the ability to naturally enter dormancy, these experiments suggest that we have nevertheless retained this inner ability and could eventually unleash it," says molecular geneticist Nicolas Rivron from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA).

"Triggering a dormant state during an IVF procedure could provide a larger time window to assess embryo health and to synchronize it with the mother for better implantation inside the uterus."

This tactic allows animals to synchronize their resource demands with the environment's cycles of supply, delaying development until a more opportune moment.

Over 130 mammals are known to use these diapauses as part of their reproductive strategy. As some of these species, such as bears and wallabies, are so distantly related it suggests this ability is a commonly shared ancestral trait. One which even humans may still retain too.

So Max Planck geneticist Dhanur Iyer and colleagues used laboratory experiments to show the same molecule that allows other mammals to put their pregnancies on hold also works on human stem cells and in a human embryo model.

Discovered from earlier experiments in mice, the 'pause' molecule mTORi inhibits the mechanistic target of rapamycin, which is critical for regulating cell growth, division, and many other major cell functions.

When the researchers exposed a blastoid – a model of stem cells representing a five-to-seven day old embryo – to mTORi it entered a sort of hibernation for up to eight days in the lab. While its growth and cells dividing into more of themselves slowed, the reactivated blastoid was still able to attach to endometrial cells cells as an embryo would at this stage of development.

"The developmental timing of blastoids can be stretched around the blastocyst stage, which is exactly the stage where diapause works in most mammals," Iyer points out.

When the team stopped providing mTORi to the blastoids, they awoke and resumed functioning as normal.

However, Iyer and team found when they tried the same process on human stem cells, more of them died during this process compared to embryonic mouse stem cells exposed to the same conditions.

What's more, while blastoids closely resemble human embryos at the blastocyst stage, they're not so identical that it's certain the blastocysts would respond the same way, the researchers caution. But the team suspects other molecules could assist the dormancy process, to allow cells a better chance of full recovery.


Website Link: molecularbiologist.org/

Contact Mail ID : contact@molecularbiologist.org

Nomination Link  : https://molecularbiologist.org/award-nomination/?ecategory=Awards&rcategory=Awardee


Follow On:

Twitterhttps://x.com/Camilla532645                                                                   

Blogger https://molecularconference.blogspot.com/ 

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCehrwFGWKbQa0mKDDNJCwvA              Pinterest https://in.pinterest.com/molecularbiologistawards/                   

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=onboarding-landing               

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/molecularawards

#HumanEmbryo #PauseButtonMolecule #StemCellResearch #EmbryoDevelopment #CellularBiology#Embryology #ScientificDiscovery #HumanDevelopment #MolecularBiology

#GeneticResearch #EarlyDevelopment #RegenerativeMedicine #CellCycle #MoleculeDiscovery
#DevelopmentalBiology #GeneRegulation #CellResearch #MedicalBreakthrough #EmbryonicPause
#GeneExpression #Biotech #BioInnovation #LifeSciences #ScientificInnovation #BiomedicalResearch
#HumanGenome #BiologyMatters #MedicalResearch #HumanLife #EmbryoStudies

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Vitamin D Deficiency Can Raise Autoimmune Disease Risk

Image
  The body can naturally produce vitamin D when skin is exposed to sunlight, but this process declines significantly in winter. There also aren't many food sources of vitamin D. But vitamin D is very important to the body. The  vitamin D receptor  can be found in many different tissues, and while the vitamin's roles in bone health and calcium level maintenance are  well known , less is understood about its other functions, such as how it relates to immunity. Several immune cells have vitamin D receptors and gene activity in those cells can be affected by the vitamin. Low levels of vitamin D have also been associated with a variety of autoimmune disorders including inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis vulgaris, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes. Studies  have also shown  that vitamin D supplements can help lower the risk of autoimmune disease. A new study  reported in  Science Advances  has provided new insights in...
Read more

Uncovering the molecular drivers of liver cancer

Image
  Researchers discover that inflammation and aging contribute to non-viral liver cancer development. Green tea's role in reversing some of the pathway dysregulation that may contribute to the cancer development and other therapies explored. Liver cancer can arise spontaneously from healthy liver tissue. Recently, however, researchers have discovered an increasing correlation between some liver cancers and non-viral chronic liver disease (CLD). One liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is associated with CLD in about 15–25% of cases. While increasing awareness and screening of cancers has improved the ability to detect liver cancer at earlier stages when it is more effectively treated, cancer prevention is always a primary goal of both healthcare providers and biomedical researchers. The increasing prevalence of CLD with HCC suggests that this underlying condition predisposes liver tissue to cancer development. In order to investigate how healthy liver tissue differs from th...
Read more

Cannabis Leaves Molecular Marks on DNA Linked to Psychosis

Image
  The research also showed the effect of cannabis use on DNA is different in people experiencing their first episode of psychosis compared to users who have never experienced psychosis, suggesting there could be potential for DNA blood tests to help characterise those cannabis users at risk of developing psychosis to inform preventative approaches.  The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the NIHR Exeter BRC. Senior author Marta Di Forti, Professor of Drugs, Genes and Psychosis at King’s IoPPN  said: “With the increasing prevalence of cannabis use and more availability of high potency cannabis, there is a pressing need to better understand its biological impact, particularly on mental health. “Our study is the first to show high potency cannabis leaves a unique signature on DNA related to mechanisms around the immune system and energy production....
Read more