Metabolism is a major player in early human development

New discoveries into the first decisive step of human life have been made and published in Nature Cell Biology by Associate Professor Jan Żylicz’s research group at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW.

“We asked this really basic question of how a cell knows what it is and what to become” says Associate Professor Jan Żylicz. “When the blastocyst forms, the cells will either become the embryo or the placenta, and here we find a direct link between cell identity and how the cell produces and consumes energy, its metabolism.”

The researchers use human embryonic stem cells to model this early stage in development. PhD student Karlien Van Nerum is an expert in generating placental cells, and she makes use of the technique to form blastoid structures from the embryonic stem cells that resemble the human embryo at the blastocyst stage.

Karlien and her colleagues found that boosting metabolism helps the cells to become placental, and that a specific molecule, α-ketoglutarate (αKG), is key. High αKG levels within the stem cells direct them to become placental. Metabolism has previously been reported to improve functionality of specific tissues, but this is the first time that its role in early human development has been revealed. Improving placental cells could open new avenues for human IVF treatment advancement.

Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-025-01658-1