Is this not a case of animal cruelty in the name of science? Just thinking out loud! Where are the animal activists when you need them! However, I suppose this kind of research is very useful.
Notice here also the apparent deliberate confusion of female animals and any animals! When ideology trumps science? I bet, these researchers did not engineer male animals to menstruate.
"Efforts to study the female reproductive system have long been set back by societal stigma—but also by the problematic fact that most laboratory animals don’t menstruate. Now, researchers have engineered mice that get a period in response to certain drugs.
Among the handful of animals that menstruate—which include large primates, four bat species, and the elephant shrew—the inner lining of the uterus, or endometrium, thickens before the release of an egg from the ovary. The layer then breaks down and is shed if no viable embryo appears.
In the new work, a team of researchers engineered the endometrium of standard lab mice to react to signals that drive menstruation in other animals. They equipped the cells with a receptor protein that, when activated by a drug, amplifies their sensitivity to calcium, a trigger of decidualization which prepares the endometrium for embryo implantation. When the researchers raised those animals’ progesterone levels and stimulated the receptors, the mice produced a 3–4 day period about 3 days later, with hallmarks of human menstruation including an enlarged uterus and expanded endometrial blood vessels. ..."
From the abstract:
"During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this compartmentalization has been hindered by the lack of suitable animal models, as mice and rats do not menstruate.
Here, we present transgenic mouse models that recapitulate the key anatomical, functional, and transcriptional features of human menstruation through targeted chemogenetic activation of premenstrual differentiation.
Using single-cell spatial transcriptomics, we define a new paradigm for spatially regulated fibroblast differentiation that drives pre-menstrual endometrial layering and ultimately determines the extent of tissue shedding.
Our results revise a century-old view of endometrial shedding and regeneration and establish new transgenic mice as powerful tools to advance menstruation research."
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