Cracking Skulls

Our skulls are shaped in the womb and continue growing after birth, yet the behaviour of bone-building cells called skeletal progenitors still has scientists scratching their heads. Here researchers scan a mouse’s cavarium – the top part of its skull – using 3D light-sheet microscopy to highlight the tissue patterns inside. Web-like arteries (highlighted in green), channel blood towards capillaries, sprinkler-like pores which nourish the surrounding cells with fluid and nutrients – some of these (shown in red) are nurturing nearby skeletal progenitor cells (grey). Teasing apart the tangle of different types of craniofacial vessel using computer algorithms (at the end of the video), allows researchers to examine how their patterns change over time – as the skull develops, or after injury – giving insights into human developmental conditions such as micrognathism.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video by Alexandra N. Rindone and colleagues
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, October 2021