In a new study published in the journal Development, Chai and his colleagues used engineered mice to zero-in on how the oropharyngeal region is patterned, and how a special group of cells - cranial neural crest cells - come in and help set up scaffolds for muscle cells during craniofacial development.

“From this study, we now have a better understanding of how we as humans have a palate that is different from other animals,” said Chai, director of USC’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology.

Looking to the future, Chai’s work suggests that knowing how cells develop scaffolds in this area can help reduce the amount of surgeries it takes to close cleft palates.

When it comes to surgical procedures, one of the challenges craniofacial surgeons face is they often don’t have sufficient muscle - or they can’t lay the muscle fibers in the right direction.

“The hope is that we can regenerate muscle and that can be used to help improve the surgical correction of a cleft in the soft palate,” Chai explained. “From this study, we have learned that it actually has to be another cell type - cranial neural crest cells - that have to be there to give the right signal for the muscle to go in the right place.”

Chai is also hoping to raise awareness about clefts - particularly a specific type of submucosal cleft - that don’t often get diagnosed until a child is far into toddlerhood. “In a lot of these cases, the kids are not diagnosed early enough to receive proper treatment, simply because the parents don’t see a gap in their mouth,” he explained.

The article is titled, "Dlx5-FGF10 signaling cascade controls cranial neural crest and myoblast interaction during oropharyngeal patterning and development."