The Role of Extracellular Matrix, Cell Membrane and Nuclear Involvement in Cellular Driven Mechanotransduction

Dear Colleagues,

Gravity plays a central role in vertebrate development and evolution, in the tissue responses to implants, and in mechanical forces applied to cells and tissues. Gravitational forces acting on mammalian tissues cause the net muscle forces required for locomotion to be higher on Earth than on a body subjected to microgravitation. Extracellular matrices (ECMs) are multicomponent tissues that transduce internal and external mechanical signals into changes in tissue structure and function through a process termed mechanotransduction. Under the influence of an external gravitational field, both soft and hard vertebrate tissues exhibit internal tensile forces that serve to preserve a synthetic phenotype in the resident cell population. This involves signals that affect the cell membrane, cytosol, nuclear membrane, and cell nucleus. The application of external forces alters the balance between the external gravitational force and internal forces acting on resident cells, leading to changes in the expression of genes and production of protein that may ultimately alter the exact structure and function of the ECM.

Mechanotransduction is thought to involve several different macromolecular components and processes including direct stretching of the protein–cell surface integrin binding sites that occur on all eukaryotic cells (integrin-dependent mechanisms), and the deformation of gap junctions containing calcium sensitive stretch receptors. Once activated, these channels activate secondary messengers through pathways such as those involved in integrin-dependent activation and enable cell-to-cell communication between cells with similar and different phenotypes. Mechanical forces have been shown to alter cell membrane ion channel permeability associated with Ca+2 and other ion fluxes, and the activation of growth factor and hormone receptors even in the absence of ligand binding.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to attempt to examine the complex relationships between the effects of mechanical forces on cell membranes, the cell cytoplasm, and nuclear events that are associated with mechanotransduction.

Dr. Frederick H. Silver
Guest Editor

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• cell membrane
• cytosol
• nuclear membrane
• integrin
• mechanotransduction
• map kinase pathway
• ERKs
• JNKs
• p38/SAPKs
• YAP/TAZ
• Hippo pathway