Welcome to The Visible Embryo, a comprehensive educational resource on human development from conception to birth.

The Visible Embryo provides visual references for changes in fetal development throughout pregnancy and can be navigated via fetal development or maternal changes.

The National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development awarded Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovative Research Grants to develop The Visible Embryo in 1993 as a first generation internet teaching tool consolidating human embryology teaching for first year medical students.

Today, The Visible Embryo is linked to over 600 educational institutions and is viewed by more than 1 million visitors each month. The field of early embryology has grown to include the identification of the stem cell as not only critical to organogenesis in the embryo, but equally critical to organ function and repair in the adult human.

The identification and understanding of genetic malfunction, inflammatory responses, and the progression in chronic disease, begins with a grounding in primary cellular and systemic functions manifested in the study of the early embryo.

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Amniotic fluid stem cells repair gut damage

Stem cells taken from amniotic fluid were used to restore gut structure and function following intestinal damage in rodents, in new research. The findings pave the way for a new form of cell therapy to reverse serious damage from inflammation in the intestines of babies.

The study, funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, investigated a new way to treat necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), where severe inflammation destroys tissues in the gut. NEC is the most common gastrointestinal surgical emergency in newborn babies, with mortality rates of around 15 to 30 per cent in the UK.

The work is published in the Monday 25 March 2013 in the journal Gut.

While breast milk and probiotics can help to reduce the incidence of the disease, no medical treatments are currently available other than surgery once NEC sets in. Surgical removal of the dead tissue shortens the bowel and can lead to intestinal failure, with some babies eventually needing ongoing parenteral nutrition (feeding via an intravenous line) or an intestinal transplant.

In the study, led by the UCL Institute of Child Health, amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells were harvested from rodent amniotic fluid and given to rats with NEC. Other rats with the same condition were given bone marrow stem cells taken from their femurs, or fed as normal with no treatment, to compare the clinical outcomes of different treatments.

NEC-affected rats injected with AFS cells showed significantly higher survival rates a week after being treated, compared to the other two groups. Inspection of their intestines, including with micro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), showed the inflammation to be significantly reduced, with fewer dead cells, greater self-renewal of the gut tissue and better overall intestinal function.

While bone marrow stem cells have been known to help
reverse colonic damage in irritable bowel disease by
regenerating tissue, the beneficial effects from stem cell
therapy in NEC appear to work via a different mechanism.

Following their injection into the gut, the AFS cells moved
into the intestinal villi - the small, finger-like projections
that protrude from the lining of the intestinal wall and
pass nutrients from the intestine into the blood.

However, rather than directly repairing damaged tissue,
the AFS cells appear to have released specific growth
factors that acted on progenitor cells in the gut which
in turn, reduced the inflammation and triggered
the formation of new villi and other tissues.

Dr Paolo De Coppi, UCL Institute of Child Health, who led the study, says: "Stem cells are well known to have anti-inflammatory effects, but this is the first time we have shown that amniotic fluid stem cells can repair damage in the intestines.

In the future, we hope that stem cells found in amniotic fluid will be used more widely in therapies and in research, particularly for the treatment of congenital malformations. Although amniotic fluid stem cells have a more limited capacity to develop into different cell types than those from the embryo, they nevertheless show promise for many parts of the body including the liver, muscle and nervous system."

Dr Simon Eaton, UCL Institute of Child Health and co-author of the study, adds: "Once we have a better understanding of the mechanisms by which AFS cells trigger repair and restore function in the gut, we can start to explore new cellular or pharmacological therapies for infants with necrotizing enterocolitis."

For further information, please contact Jenny Gimpel at the GOSH-ICH press office on + 44 (0)20 7239 3043 or jenny.gimpel@gosh.org.

'Amniotic fluid stem cells improve survival and enhance repair of damaged intestine in NEC via a COX-2 dependent mechanism' by Zani et al, is published on Monday 25 March 2013 in the journal Gut. To obtain a copy of the paper, please contact Jenny Gimpel at the GOSH-ICH press office.

The study was funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, with support from the Fondazione Citta della Speranza.

Original article: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/ucl-afs032213.php