The embryo forms a hollow sphere called a blastocyst, with some cells destined to go on to form the placenta, some the yolk sac and others, ultimately, us. But without OCT4 the blastocyst cannot form.

Under the microscope, they looked identical to real early embryos or blastocysts, with the same spherical ball of cells that would usually go on to make the placenta and baby. The researchers were ...

Finally, there are ES cells, derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos. These pluripotent cells are the most ubiquitous of all. Once removed from the blastocyst they lack the ...

Stem cell-based embryo models, such as blastoids, serve as models of the blastocyst and are invaluable tools for studying embryogenesis and early human development. However, the variability in ...

Should it be a baby in the eye of the law? After the blastocyst has grown comes the hard part. Embryos must survive their cryogenic thaw. One must successfully implant in the walls of a uterus ...

Three and a half days after division begins (in mouse embryos), the proliferating cells form a structure called a blastocyst. It is 100 to 150 micrometers wide, or roughly the same size as the egg ...

blastocyst culture, and/or cryoconservation), namely, a very early, complete division/duplication of the embryo, so that monozygotic twins each have their own placenta and their own membranous ...