Cellular Insights Into Facial Morphogenesis

Mother Nature is an artist, but her craft of creating animal faces requires more than a paintbrush and palette. Such highly complex shapes originate from their respective transient neural crest cells

These embryonic pluripotent cells within the facial primordium-;the early development form-;may be necessary for forming proper facial structures. However, analyzing the molecular mechanisms in such early stages of development poses many technical challenges.

Now, a group of Kyoto University researchers have produced neural crest cell-rich aggregates from human pluripotent stem cells and developed a method to differentiate them in cell populations with a branchial arch-like gene expression pattern. 

After the cell populations differentiate into precursors of maxillary and mandibular cells in response to external signaling factors, these populations spontaneously form patterns of the facial primordium."

Yusuke Seto of KyotoU's Institute for Medical and Biological Research

This cartilage-like structure, reminiscent of Meckel's cartilage, is formed locally within the aggregates.

"We aim to establish a model for studying early facial development by using the properties of human pluripotent stem cells to generate in vitro tissue resembling the bronchial arch of the primordial face," adds Ryoma Ogihara, also of the Institute.

Researchers are examining the various developmental processes that cause interspecific and individual differences in facial structure to explain conditions such as craniofacial disorders.

"Using our in vitro model could help us better understand and control signal integration during the fate determination of the branchial arch and cartilage formation in the face and elsewhere. We hope our technology can contribute to the development of cellular materials for new regenerative medicine," adds Mototsugu Eiraku, also of the Institute.

Source:
Journal reference:

Seto, Y., et al. (2024). In vitro induction of patterned branchial arch-like aggregate from human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Communicationsdoi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45285-0.

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of AZoLifeSciences.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
Stem Cells' Ability to Respond to Physical Forces Uncovered