Scientists Reveal New Geometric Shape That is Used in Packing of Cells

A recent research has been conducted by the researchers related to the packaging of cells. The scientists have found out a previously undescribed shape that they have named as 'scutoid'. This shape was adopted by epithelial cells during embryonic development that enabled the cells to minimize energy use and maximize the packing stability.

When the embryo starts growing up, the tissues convert into complex three-dimensional shapes. These shapes later take the formation of an organ. The outer layer of the cells called as the epithelial cells help in this process to a great extent. The epithelial cells are characterized by common structural features, especially their arrangement into cohesive sheets, but have various functions made possible by many specialized adaptations. The epithelial cells also form the lining of the blood vessels and organs of all the animals. The epithelial cells are capable of getting packed closely and tightly. When an embryo grows, the epithelial cells take up either columnar or bottle-like shapes in order to accommodate the curving that takes place. The scientists deeply studied and investigated this process and came up with a new geometric shape in this process. During their study and research they inferred that epithelial cells adopt a previously undescribed shape that enables the cells to minimize energy use and maximize packing stability. The credit of this study goes to United States-European Union collaboration between the teams of Luis M. Escudero (Seville University, Spain) and that of Javier Buceta (Lehigh University, USA). Pedro Gomez-Galvez and Pablo Vicente-Munuera are the first authors of this work that also includes scientists from the Andalucian Center of Developmental Biology, and the Severo Ochoa Center of Molecular Biology, among others. The new shape has been named as scutoid," because it looks similar to the scutellum. Scutellum is the posterior part of an insect thorax or midsection. Further in order to confirm the assumptions of the model, the group investigated the three-dimensional packing of different tissues in different animals. The team has inferred that the cutoids stabilize the three-dimensional packing and make it energetically efficient. These findings can be found to be extremely beneficial in understanding the three-dimensional organization of epithelial organs and lead to advancements in tissue engineering. The team also stated that the ability to engineer tissues and organs in the future critically depends upon the ability to understand, and then control, the 3D organization of cells.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180728084136.htm