Embryology: Treatment, Effects & Risks

Human development begins through sexual reproduction and subsequent gametogenesis. A cell, called a gamete, formed from primordial germ cells and having a haploid set of chromosomes, meets a female egg as a sperm. After fertilization, the zygote develops, the germ becomes embedded, and the process of embryogenesis begins – the growth of an embryo. Embryology studies and observes this process.

What is embryology?

Embryology is a branch of medicine and developmental biology. The word “embryon” comes from Greek and means life fruit. This is a branch of medicine and developmental biology. The word “embryon” comes from the Greek and means life fruit. It is thus the science of the entire prenatal development. As early as the 5th century BC, the first theories were put forward as to how an embryo should develop. However, the conception was still characterized by the believing aspect, so one presupposed the act of a divine creation. The Greek philosopher Aristotle then theorized that sperm might activate a woman’s menstrual blood in some way, thus initiating the formation of an embryo. Leonardo da Vinci made the first measurements of the various stages of embryonic development, while as early as the 2nd century AD the physician Galenos, also from Greece, had written about prenatal development and about the placenta, conditions that shaped embryology until modern times. Fertilization, the development of a fertilized egg into an embryo, is examined in more detail here, and embryology can be divided into general and specific.

Treatments and therapies

For general embryology, the development of germ cells plays a role. So does the process of ovulation, fertilization and implantation. The formation and function of the egg membranes, placenta, and germinal discs are considered in more detail. Egg membranes are the layers of tissue that envelop the fetus in utero. They eventually form the amniotic sac, which separates the embryo from the maternal tissue. In embryology, the outer egg membrane is distinguished from the inner egg membrane. Egg membranes attached to the edge of the placenta. The placenta forms in a woman’s uterus and continuously supplies the embryo with oxygen and nutrients derived from the mother’s metabolism. It forms after the blastocyst implants in the uterus and weighs about 500 grams when fully developed. It consists of a maternal and fetal part, while the embryo is connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord. The germinal disc, in turn, is the part of the fertilized egg from which the embryo is formed. All this belongs to the field of general embryology. Special embryology goes beyond the development of the embryo and more into the formation of individual organ systems. Here, the formation of the brain, heart, lungs and other organs is considered in more detail. The summary then deals with the embryology of the respective organ. In addition, there is the comparative embryology, which compares embryonic development of different species and thereby also draws conclusions about phylogenetic aspects, the descriptive, which analyzes the emergence of animal or plant structures, the causal, which conducts functional and causal analysis and poses the question of determinant factors that influence the development of the embryo, and phylogenetically oriented embryology, which conducts an analysis of evolution and thereby considers phylogenetically determined changes in the processes, which in turn enriches homology research. Other areas that embryology has an impact on are immunology, tissue culture, and endocrinology. In addition, cell fusion and the method of nuclear transfer were introduced. Specialties gradually merged with each other, so that, for example, geneticists, developmental and molecular biologists worked together. Another subfield is also molecular embryology. This deals specifically with the molecular processes that occur during the embryonic development phase. The mechanisms that control cell differentiation are relevant. It was found that the development of the embryo in animals and humans are similar in terms of molecular level. It was also found that genes involved in development play an important role in possible diseases in humans.

Diagnosis and examination methods

When malformations occur or the germ cell is damaged during embryo development, medicine and embryology speak of gametopathy. These are defects that are already present in the egg or sperm cell before fertilization occurs. A defect that occurs during the development of the fetus is called fetapathy. In this case, the first stage of pregnancy is particularly susceptible to harmful effects, while the second two stages are less susceptible because most organs have already formed. Such fetapathies can reach the fetus via the placenta in the bloodstream, can be infectious agents, toxins or, for example, metabolic disorders of the mother. Scientists hope that the use of embryonic stem cells will offer great opportunities for curing diseases that have hardly been treated to date. To obtain such cells, human embryos are destroyed at a very early stage, so this procedure is still extremely controversial. While in Germany the derivation of embryonic stem cells is forbidden, in America and Great Britain such test attempts have already been made, for example with patients suffering from the disease “Morbus Stargardt”. Embryonic stem cells can transform into any type of tissue as body cells and thus replace diseased cells. Embryonic stem cells were placed in the eyes of the test subjects to test whether they were compatible with the damaged retina. The results were positive.