embryo

Inheritance of mitochondrial disease determined when mother is still an embryo
10/08/2012 - 08:45

The risk of a child to inherit mitochondrial diseases - i. e. malfunction in what is usually referred to as the power plants of the cell - is largely decided when the future mother herself is still an embryo. This according to a novel study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute in Germany, which is published in the journal Nature Genetics.

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Finished heart switches stem cells off
07/12/2012 - 12:53

It is not unusual for babies to be born with congenital heart defects. This is because the development of the heart in the embryo is a process which is not only extremely complex, but also error-prone. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim have now identified a key molecule that plays a central role in regulating the function of stem cells in the heart. As a result, not only could congenital heart defects be avoided in future, but new ways of stimulating the regeneration of damaged hearts in adults may be opened up.

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Environmental Estrogens Affect Early Developmental Activity in Zebrafish
06/22/2012 - 10:22

Chemicals in the environment that mimic estrogen can strongly influence the development of humans and other animals. New research to be presented at the 2012 International Zebrafish Development and Genetics Conference, held June 20-24 in Madison, Wisconsin, reveals that these substances may act even earlier than previously realized, at the very beginning stages of embryonic development.

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Higher risk of birth defects from assisted reproduction
05/05/2012 - 14:18

A University of Adelaide study has identified the risk of major birth defects associated with different types of assisted reproductive technology. In the most comprehensive study of its kind in the world, researchers from the University's Robinson Institute have compared the risk of major birth defects for each of the reproductive therapies commonly available internationally, such as: IVF (in vitro fertilisation), ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) and ovulation induction. They also compared the risk of birth defects after fresh and frozen embryo transfer.

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Waking embryos before they are born
05/03/2012 - 11:27

Under some conditions, the brains of embryonic chicks appear to be awake well before those chicks are ready to hatch out of their eggs. That's according to an imaging study published online on May 3 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers woke chick embryos inside their eggs by playing loud, meaningful sounds to them. Playing meaningless sounds to the embryos wasn't enough to rouse their brains.

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Embryonic stem cells shift metabolism in a cancer-like way upon implanting in the uterus
03/23/2012 - 19:55

Shortly after a mouse embryo starts to form, some of its stem cells undergo a dramatic metabolic shift to enter the next stage of development, Seattle researchers report today. These stem cells start using and producing energy like cancer cells.

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