Modelling human blastocysts by reprogramming fibroblasts into iBlastoids

Xiaodong Liu, Jia Ping Tan, Jan Schröder, Asma Aberkane, John F. Ouyang, Monika Mohenska, Sue Mei Lim, Yu B. Y. Sun, Joseph Chen, Guizhi Sun, Yichen Zhou, Daniel Poppe, Ryan Lister, Amander T. Clark, Owen J. L. Rackham, Jennifer Zenker and Jose M. Polo ()
Additional contact information
Xiaodong Liu: Monash University
Jia Ping Tan: Monash University
Jan Schröder: Monash University
Asma Aberkane: Monash University
John F. Ouyang: Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School
Monika Mohenska: Monash University
Sue Mei Lim: Monash University
Yu B. Y. Sun: Monash University
Joseph Chen: Monash University
Guizhi Sun: Monash University
Yichen Zhou: Monash University
Daniel Poppe: The University of Western Australia
Ryan Lister: The University of Western Australia
Amander T. Clark: University of California Los Angeles
Owen J. L. Rackham: Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School
Jennifer Zenker: Monash University
Jose M. Polo: Monash University

Nature, 2021, vol. 591, issue 7851, 627-632

Abstract: Abstract Human pluripotent and trophoblast stem cells have been essential alternatives to blastocysts for understanding early human development1–4. However, these simple culture systems lack the complexity to adequately model the spatiotemporal cellular and molecular dynamics that occur during early embryonic development. Here we describe the reprogramming of fibroblasts into in vitro three-dimensional models of the human blastocyst, termed iBlastoids. Characterization of iBlastoids shows that they model the overall architecture of blastocysts, presenting an inner cell mass-like structure, with epiblast- and primitive endoderm-like cells, a blastocoel-like cavity and a trophectoderm-like outer layer of cells. Single-cell transcriptomics further confirmed the presence of epiblast-, primitive endoderm-, and trophectoderm-like cells. Moreover, iBlastoids can give rise to pluripotent and trophoblast stem cells and are capable of modelling, in vitro, several aspects of the early stage of implantation. In summary, we have developed a scalable and tractable system to model human blastocyst biology; we envision that this will facilitate the study of early human development and the effects of gene mutations and toxins during early embryogenesis, as well as aiding in the development of new therapies associated with in vitro fertilization.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03372-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:591:y:2021:i:7851:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03372-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03372-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().