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Updated: Jul 8, 2026
12:09
Protocol for Human Blastoids Modeling Blastocyst Development and Implantation
Published on: August 10, 2022
Morphogenesis of the mammalian blastocyst
Nicolas Dard1, Manuel Breuer, Bernard Maro
1Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire du Développement, UMR 7622, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 Quai St Bernard, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
|December 25, 2007
Summary
Mouse pre-implantation development involves segmentation and lineage divergence. Essential developmental axes are established later, at the blastocyst stage, not during early segmentation phases.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Mammalian Embryogenesis
- Cellular Morphogenesis
Background:
- Early mammalian development involves segmentation and lineage specification.
- Extra-embryonic tissues are crucial for uterine implantation and fetal development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the timing of developmental axis establishment in mice.
- To explain why early vertebrate pre-patterning models do not apply to mammalian pre-implantation.
- To describe key cellular and molecular events in blastocyst morphogenesis.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of developmental biology data.
- Analysis of cellular and molecular events during pre-implantation development.
Main Results:
- No essential developmental axis is established before the late blastocyst stage in mice.
- Early segmentation phases lack the pre-patterning seen in other vertebrates.
- Specific cellular and molecular events drive blastocyst morphogenesis.
Conclusions:
- Mammalian development does not rely on early pre-patterning for axis formation.
- Blastocyst stage is critical for establishing developmental axes.
- Understanding blastocyst morphogenesis is key to early mammalian development.
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