Despite its importance, understanding the early phases of human development has been limited by availability of human samples. The recent emergence of stem-cell-derived embryo models, a new field aiming to use stem cells to construct in vitro models to recapitulate snapshots of the development of the mammalian conceptus, opens up exciting opportunities to promote fundamental understanding of human development and advance reproductive and regenerative medicine. This Review provides a summary of the current knowledge of early mammalian development, using mouse and human conceptuses as models, and emphasizes their similarities and critical differences. We then highlight existing embryo models that mimic different aspects of mouse and human development. We further discuss bioengineering tools used for controlling multicellular interactions and self-organization critical for the development of these models. We conclude with a discussion of the important next steps and exciting future opportunities of stem-cell-derived embryo models for fundamental discovery and translation.

尽管它很重要，但了解人类发展的早期阶段一直受到人类样本可用性的限制。最近出现的干细胞衍生胚胎模型是一个新领域，旨在利用干细胞构建体外模型来概括哺乳动物孕体发育的快照，为促进对人类发育和促进生殖的基本理解开辟了令人兴奋的机会和再生医学。本综述使用小鼠和人类概念作为模型，总结了早期哺乳动物发育的当前知识，并强调了它们的相似性和关键差异。然后，我们重点介绍模仿小鼠和人类发育不同方面的现有胚胎模型。我们进一步讨论了用于控制对这些模型的开发至关重要的多细胞相互作用和自组织的生物工程工具。最后，我们讨论了干细胞衍生胚胎模型用于基础发现和转化的重要后续步骤和令人兴奋的未来机会。