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Mesh It Up
12 December 2015

Mesh It Up

It’s been known since the 1970s that cells in our body maintain their shape thanks to rigid protein connections that draw together different cell organelles – the tiny ‘organs’, each with specialised function, within a cell. Since then, scientists have thought that there were no new cellular structures to be discovered. So it came as a great surprise when a recent three-dimensional CT scan of so-called mitotic spindles (green tubes) revealed by accident a hitherto unseen mesh (yellow) that binds the tubes into a network. The tubes ensure that when cells divide they carry away the right number of chromosomes. This is a highly delicate function that scientists now suspect can go wrong and cause tumours when the mesh is too rigid. They noticed that some cancers show an over-abundance of the very same protein that constitutes the mesh – a rough measure of rigidity.

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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