Chinese scientists make male mice pregnant, the process is very complicated

Can males share the burden of bearing offspring?

Pregnant mice model experiment constructed on male mice (source: biorxiv, life science preprint platform)

Recently, a research result of Chinese scientists showed that through a pregnant mouse model built on male rats, male rats successfully gave birth to cubs by caesarean section, and finally 10 cubs developed to adulthood.

The above research results were published on biorxiv, a preprint platform for life sciences, entitled "a rat model of pregnancy in the male parallel", published on June 16, by the experimental teaching demonstration center of education institution of Naval Medical College of Naval Medical University Zhang Rongjia, Department of nutrition and food hygiene, Naval Medical College, Naval Medical University, and Liu Yuhuan, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Changhai Hospital, Naval Medical University. This paper has not been peer-reviewed and has not been officially published.

Research results published on biorxiv, a life science preprint platform (screenshot)

According to the paper, the study used four steps to build a pregnant mouse model in male rats. First of all, a male rat and a female rat were connected together by surgery to produce a "conjoined rat", and a female microenvironment was given to the male rat through blood exchange. Eight weeks later, the uterus was transplanted into male rats. After recovery, the embryos were transferred into the transplanted uterus of male rats and the original uterus of female rats. After 21.5 days of development, the researchers gave male rats a caesarean section.

Eventually, 10 pups were delivered by caesarean section from male rats to adulthood, the paper said.

Histological examination showed that there were no obvious abnormalities in the heart, lung, liver, kidney, brain, testis, epidermis, ovary or uterus of the offspring successfully delivered from male rats by caesarean section. The study concluded that the success rate of the experiment was very low, only 3.68%.