哺乳动物早期胚胎发育研究进展和伦理

Advances and ethics in research of early mammalian embryonic development

摘要:

早期胚胎发育关乎生命健康本源。解析人类早期胚胎发育调控机制可从源头提升人口健康，提高人口素质，从而促进经济社会可持续发展。然而，受限于技术和伦理，人类早期胚胎发育调控机制尚未得到全面解析。近年来，随着哺乳动物胚胎体外培养和“类胚胎”等技术的发展，人类进入解开自身早期胚胎发育之谜的最好时代，同时也迎来了新一轮伦理挑战。本文系统地回顾了以啮齿类和灵长类为主的哺乳动物早期胚胎发育领域的研究进展，探讨了人类胚胎研究相关的伦理争议，展望了早期胚胎发育研究的发展方向，希冀为人类认知早期胚胎发育事件和出生缺陷及多种发育源性疾病的发病机制与诊疗提供新思路和新手段。

Abstract:

The importance of early embryonic development in ensuring human health has long been recognized. Insights into the mechanisms of human early embryonic development can potentially contribute towards improving public health and reversing population aging, and promoting economic and social development. However, our knowledge of regulation networks that underpin human early embryonic development is far from complete due to technological and ethical constrains. Recently, incredible progress in scientific research on in vitro culture of mammalian embryos and embryoid technology represents a great opportunity in disclosing the mystery of human early embryonic development but also presents the toughest ethical challenges. Here we systematically review the major progress of research on early mammalian (rodent and primate) embryonic development, discuss the ethical debates about human embryo research, and lay out the future direction for the study of the early embryonic development regulation for both basic research and clinical application.