The many ways adherent cells respond to applied stretch

Candice Sears; Roland Kaunas

doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2015.10.014

The many ways adherent cells respond to applied stretch

J Biomech. 2016 May 24;49(8):1347-1354. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2015.10.014. Epub 2015 Oct 19.

Authors

Candice Sears¹, Roland Kaunas²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3120, USA.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3120, USA. Electronic address: rkaunas@tamu.edu.

PMID: 26515245
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2015.10.014

Abstract

Cells in various tissues are subjected to mechanical stress and strain that have profound effects on cell architecture and function. The specific response of the cell to applied strain depends on multiple factors, including cell contractility, spatial and temporal strain pattern, and substrate dimensionality and rigidity. Recent work has demonstrated that the cell response to applied strain depends on a complex combination of these factors, but the way these factors interact to elicit a specific response is not intuitive. We submit that an understanding of the integrated response of a cell to these factors will provide new insight into mechanobiology and contribute to the effective design of deformable engineered scaffolds meant to provide appropriate mechanical cues to the resident cells.

Keywords: Cell mechanics; Cytoskeleton; Mechanobiology; Tissue engineering.

MeSH terms

Mechanotransduction, Cellular*
Stress, Mechanical
Tissue Engineering