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These Newly Identified Cells Could Change the Face of Plastic Surgery
Cartilage cells that contain fat explain why some skeletal tissues are less rigid than others, and could one day be grown in labs to produce better materials for performing reconstructive surgeries and rhinoplasties.
But 19th-century tools couldn’t expand beyond that observation, and, realizing that a more accurate census of skeletal tissue might be valuable for medicine, Plikus resolved to crack the case. In the outer ear of Pallas’s long-tongued bat, for example, lipocartilage underlies a series of ruffles that scientists believe attunes them to precise wavelengths of sound. For procedures that involve modifying these parts of the body, Plikus one day envisions growing lipocartilage organoids in a dish and 3D-printing them in any desired shape.
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