Increased pressure on embryo may impact facial development: Study

The researchers performed their analyses in mice and frog embryos, and in lab-grown structures made of human stem cells.

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Findings

Human stem cells cannot perform specific functions, to begin with but, with time, self-renew and have the potential to become specialised cells such as those in muscles, blood or the brain. These cells are needed for tissue maintenance and also repairs following an injury.

“When an organism is experiencing a change in pressure, all the cells — including the embryo inside the mother — are able to sense it,” said Roberto Mayor, professor of developmental and cellular neurobiology at the University College, London, and lead author of the study, which has been published in the Nature Cell Biology journal.

“Our findings suggest that facial malformations could be influenced not only by genetics but by physical cues in the womb such as pressure,” he said.

Mayor and his colleagues had previously found that cells in developing embryos sense the stiffness of other cells around them, which is key to them moving together to form the face and skull, they said.

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