“… 39 We indeed observed such dichotomy in our cartilage organoids using immunostaining ( Figures 3 C and 8 A). A study of microtia using scRNA-seq revealed several populations of cells in auricular cartilage, including two cell types that were called chondral and stromal stem/progenitor stem cells, 83 the latter of which expressed COL1A1 on edge regions of human auricular cartilage tissue, similar to our organoids. Another study comparing nonsyndromic microtia to normal total RNA and protein found 17 genes downregulated in microtia enriched in the ECM−receptor interaction, focal adhesion, cholesterol metabolism, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) signaling pathways.…”