Methods for studying human organogenesis

Gerald Cunha; Maya Overland; Yi Li; Mei Cao; Joel Shen; Adriane Sinclair; Laurence Baskin

doi:10.1016/j.diff.2015.10.005

Methods for studying human organogenesis

Differentiation. 2016 Apr-Jun;91(4-5):10-4. doi: 10.1016/j.diff.2015.10.005. Epub 2015 Nov 14.

Authors

Gerald Cunha¹, Maya Overland², Yi Li², Mei Cao², Joel Shen², Adriane Sinclair², Laurence Baskin²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Avenue, Box A610, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Electronic address: gerald.cunha@ucsf.edu.
² Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Avenue, Box A610, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.

Abstract

This review details methods for utilizing D & C suction abortus specimens as a source of human fetal organs to study the morphogenetic and molecular mechanisms of human fetal organ development. By this means it is possible to design experiments elucidating the molecular mechanisms of human fetal organ development and to compare and contrast human developmental mechanisms with that of laboratory animals. Finally human fetal organs can be grown in vivo as grafts to athymic mice, thus allowing ethical analysis of potential adverse effects of environmental toxicants.

Keywords: Human development; Internal genitalia; Male and female external genitalia.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aborted Fetus / transplantation*
Animals
Cell Differentiation / genetics*
Ecotoxicology
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Humans
Mice
Organogenesis / genetics*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding