Mechanotransduction in development: a growing role for contractility

By Michele A. Wozniak, Christopher S. Chen. Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology, 2009

799 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Mechanotransduction research has focused historically on how externally applied forces can affect cell signalling and function. A growing body of evidence suggests that contractile forces that are generated internally by the actomyosin cytoskeleton are also important in regulating cell behaviour, and suggest a broader role for mechanotransduction in biology. Although the molecular basis for these cellular forces in mechanotransduction is being pursued in cell culture, researchers are also beginning to appreciate their contribution to in vivo developmental processes. Here, we examine the role for mechanical forces and contractility in regulating cell and tissue structure and function during development.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2762c184d81bb82b269f010715fce3746264da49

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Citations in the corpus

The biology of YAP/TAZ: hippo signaling and beyond. (2014, background): “Cell mechanics and the status of the cytoskeleton are true overarching signals that cells use to make essential decisions, such as proliferation, differentiation, and maintenance of stem cells (48, 95, 131, 225).”
Designing materials to direct stem-cell fate (2009, background): “Although some of these effects are probably due to alterations in the adhesive interactions and crosstalk between the ECM and the cell as they work to define each other, there is ample evidence suggesting that physical control of cell shape alone can act as a potent regulator of cell signalling and ”
Myosin II dynamics are regulated by tension in intercalating cells (2009, background): “First, forces have been shown to influence gene expression in normal cells as well as during tumorigenesis (Orr et al., 2006; Wozniak and Chen, 2009), suggesting that tension could lead to changes in the expression of myosin II regulatory proteins.”
Mechanotransduction gone awry (2009, background): “, and intercellular physical interactions such as tension and adhesion might be as important in embryonic development as concentration gradients of morphogenic factors (see the Review by Wozniak and Che”
Geometric cues for directing the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (2010, background): “Recent studies have also shown how Wnts are activated by mechanical stimuli during bone development (43, 44) with additional functions in regulating cell contractility during tissue morphogenesis (37, 45).”
Nanotopography-guided tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (2012, background): “Recently, nanotechnology research has been geared toward the fabrication of nanotopographical substrateswith physiologically relevantmechanical stimuli to elucidate the role ofmechanical forces on cell and tissue behavior [44,120].”