Mammal embryo CAN develop normally in micro-g!

[RainDreamer]

http://www.popsci.com/mammal-embryos-can-develop-normally-in-space

Quote

The satellite launched into space on April 6, bringing 20 experiments with it. 6,000 mouse embryos were loaded into an enclosed chamber about a cubic foot in size. At launch, the embryos were only two cells, very early in their development, and were in a solution that fed the embryos the nutrients they needed to mature. The researchers outfitted the chamber with a camera that took photos of the embryos every four hours.

From those photos, the researchers found that within four days, a number of the embryos developed into blastocysts, a more complex embryo that has some cell differentiation.

This is an initial indication that the embryos were able to develop normally in zero gravity. But, of course, the question still remains if the same results would hold true for humans

Looks like it might be possible for us to have children in space and continuing our species migration to the stars!

[Nibb31]

The title is misleading. You'd need more than 4 days to get any conclusive results. You'd also need to study bone structure, inner ear formation, development of the optical nerve and other organs...

Edited April 19, 2016 by Nibb31

[YNM]

Embryos ? I want live offspring !

[KSK]

It's a promising result for sure but as Nibb31 says, too early stage to draw any conclusions.

The blastocyst is basically a hollow ball of cells surrounding a fluid filled cavity with a larger clump of cells attached to the inner surface. The ball will eventually develop into the placenta, the clump will develop into the amniotic sac and the embryo inside. So says Wikipedia at any rate.

Now, the blastocyst itself develops from a smaller, solid ball of cells, so clearly the cells have had to move around to produce a hollow ball from a solid ball. I'm not a cell biologist, so I don't know how that movement occurs but I'd be very surprised if it could be significantly affected by gravity simply because cells are so small that any force responsible for moving them around will be massively stronger than any gravitational force acting on the cells.

Later on in development, I can imagine that mechanical forces between developing tissues will become increasingly important and those kind of forces may be affected by zero-g.

Edited April 19, 2016 by KSK

[RainDreamer]

It is a crucial first step in development of the fetus though, so at least for now, we know that the embryo can get that far, enough to begin the stage where it can attach to the womb and begin further development - I imagine the next step that the researchers do will be implanting these embryos to test mouses and see how they work out. It does not mean babies being born in space any time soon, of course, since we still have so many steps in between a viable embryo and a fully formed fetus, but it does signify that we have made progress in our research.

[todofwar]

I thought the biggest problem wasn't fetal development, but childhood development. You would grow up never developing strong bones, and probably end up with twisted limbs that have little function. There was a great YouTube video going over the potential problems of this (including the whole getting pregnant in the first place part, which has its own set of problems). Strangely, all the comments in the video were arguing over evolution even though I don't think the narrator said the word evolution once....

[YNM]

Probably because they thought the only way it's applicable is in a generation ship. Which, of all, isn't very elegant.