Researchers have just discovered a new geometric shape that has never been recognized in the world of science or mathematics. They find it in our skin, precisely on epithelial cells.

Epithelial cells are one of the most important cells in our body. They are the builders of the external structures of skin tissues and organs since we are still embryos.

This epithelial tissue is made up of many tiny cells attached to each other. The researchers had suspected that these cells might be prismatic or frustum (like a truncated pyramid).

However, computer modeling shows something surprising. Apparently, epithelial cells are not in the form of prism or frustum. In fact, researchers have never seen this form before.

Biologist Javier Buceta of the University of Lehigh, USA, said, in the modeling process, the results we see are very strange. Our model predicts that as the curvature of the tissue increases, the cells do not just turn into pole or bottle shapes.

The form found by researchers such as prism, but one end has five sides, while the other end has six sides. This form can occur because there is a Y-shaped separator in the middle of the prism causing a triangle shape.

One of the team members, cell biologist Luisma Escudora of the University of Seville in Spain, said that compared to other geometric forms, this form is more energy efficient when the network is curved.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers have named this form "scutoid" because it resembles the scutellum, the back of the thorax, in some insects.

They also verified it in nature, and found preliminary evidence that scutoid is also present in the epithelial tissue of fruit flies and zebra fish.

However, the researchers also affirm that further research needs to be done to confirm how common this form is in living things (including humans).

So far, they are pleased that these findings will open up new avenues for the arrangement of three-dimensional shapes in epithelial organs, for example when we want to make artificial organs.

"These findings could help you build a framework that supports this kind of cellular arrangement, which accurately mimics the natural form of creating an efficient network," says Buceta.

Thank you