According to a report by CCTV citing Japan's TV Asahi on the 3rd, a company in Okinawa, Japan, successfully cultivated sharks using "artificial wombs".In order to save the lives of premature sharks, the company has been working on the "artificial womb" device since 2017 and successfully used it to breed and give birth to a deep-sea shark that can glow.

Japanese media said,It is the first time in the world that an artificial womb has been used to successfully breed and give birth to a shark., the research team hopes to continue developing an "artificial womb" device that could be applied to other sharks.

As early as 2021, there were reports that the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and the Okinawa Churaumi Foundation Research Center had developed a shark artificial uterus device. Using this device, they successfully grew fetuses from the Pintail lanternshark (also known as Muller's lanternshark, a glowing deep-sea shark) and successfully performed artificial births.

The lantern shark is only 40 centimeters long. They live at depths of 260 to 860 meters and are widely distributed in the Pacific from Japan to Australia and New Zealand. There are very small light-emitting organs on the surface of its body that emit a faint blue light. To date, there are no records of long-term breeding.

It is reported that,The artificial womb was developed using three core elements: the main chamber, the storage tank and the filtration system.Scientists have also developed an artificial uterine fluid that mimics the conditions in a female shark's uterus.

At the time, shark embryos were kept in the womb for five months. During hatching, they grow from about three inches to five inches. After the incubation period, scientists put the embryos into a seawater tank, marking the embryo's "artificial birth."

However, researchers say the sharks died within days of their birth. Scientists attribute this to a failure to acclimate to the right seawater environment for the postpartum period.

Scientists say the remaining technical challenge remains how to safely raise the pups after artificial birth.