These bubble wrap chondrocytes are stained green for better visibility.
Prix Laboratory/University of California/Irvine
A long-overlooked skeletal tissue in the nose and ears has been found to resemble bubble wrap. This could potentially facilitate facial surgeries such as rhinoplasty.
Maxime Prix Researchers at the University of California, Irvine first discovered this abnormal tissue several years ago while studying fat cells taken from mouse ears. “It was just a scientific accident,” he says.
The noses and ears of mice and humans contain hard, flexible tissue called cartilage, which is also found in joints. Conventional wisdom holds that cartilage is a similar structure no matter where it is located in the body. The cells within it do not contain much fat and are surrounded by a thick protein-rich matrix that provides strength.
However, when the researchers examined samples of mouse noses and ears under a microscope, they found that the structures made of fat-filled cells, also known as lipids, were connected only by a thin mesh of proteins. named it fatty cartilage. “It looks like bubble wrap,” Plix says.
The researchers found that this abnormal cartilage had been noticed before, but only in a brief account of its discovery in the 1850s and in a few short reports since then. To investigate further, the researchers stretched and squeezed samples of fatty cartilage from mouse ears and did the same with standard cartilage from the mice's knees and ribs.
Fatty cartilage was found to be softer and more stretchy, probably due to its higher fat content, Prix said. This suggests that fatty cartilage has unique roles in the body compared to standard cartilage, but further research is needed to identify these, he says.
The researchers also found fatty cartilage in human ear and nose samples taken from medically aborted fetuses, and the tissue can be grown in the lab and used for reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. I had my doubts. For example, a nasal modification may involve harvesting a piece of cartilage from a rib.
Growing it from stem cells instead could get around this, but attempts to do so on standard cartilage have been hampered by the difficulty of screening for remaining stem cells, Prix says. He states: If transplanted, tumors may develop. Researchers have found that fatty cartilage can be successfully grown from embryo-derived human stem cells, and that using a dye that attaches to fat within the tissue makes it much easier to find remaining stem cells. did.
Until the study results are replicated and the approach is tested in animals and humans, it's too early to tell how well this will work in practice. mark grimes from the University of Montana was not involved in the study.
Prix's team has already tested facial implants using stem cell-derived fatty cartilage in mice, and hopes to test them in humans soon. “Optimistically, it will happen within five years,” he says.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
