Stem Cell-Derived Embryo Models: Potential Platforms for Investigating Early Development and Embryotoxicity

Stem cell-derived embryo models (SCDEMs) create opportunities to investigate the morphological dynamics and underlying mechanisms of embryonic development, implantation, and post-implantation progression by recapitulating pre-and peri-implantation stages in vitro-an area that conventional in vivoapproaches struggle to investigate. This review provides a comprehensive overview of SCDEMs, detailing the methodologies used to generate synthetic embryos and the diverse types of stem cells employed. Furthermore, we describe how closely these models recapitulate key developmental processes pre- and post-implantation, thereby establishing their value as a platform for studying early mammalian embryogenesis. In addition, we suggest that synthetic embryos are valuable tools for studying environmental toxicity, yet ethical and technical constraints limit systematic in vivo investigations. We evaluate the strengths and limitations of these models in embryotoxicity studies and highlight future research strategies. SCDEMs are expected to significantly advance the broader field of early mammalian developmental biology, with impacts extending well beyond their use in embryotoxicology.