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Jaws
23 June 2012

Jaws

A cleft lip or palate is the most common birth defect of babies born in Britain, affecting one in every 700. Genetic faults, smoking, drinking, obesity and folic acid deficiency during pregnancy are all thought to raise the risk of malformation. As the embryo develops, soft-tissue projections on the two sides of the head grow forward, until they bend together and fuse in the middle to form the jaws, cheeks and nose. But when those projections fail to fuse properly, a gap can remain, giving rise to cleft defects. Biologists studying the developing lower jaw of embryonic mice (large oval shape in the centre of the image) say this remarkable self-sculpting ability owes to soft-tissue cells (stained blue) moving and growing automatically in the right direction. Finding out how the cells do this could help in the development of surgery-free face reconstruction therapies.

Written by Tristan Farrow

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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