A comprehensive understanding of intercellular and cell–matrix interactions is essential for advancing our knowledge of cell biology. Existing techniques, such as fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy, face limitations in resolution a...
Renal fibrosis is a hallmark of end-stage chronic kidney disease. It is characterized by increased accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM), which disrupts cellular organization and function within the kidney. Here, we review the bi-directional int...
Two key features of cancer cells are sustained proliferation and invasion, which is preceded by a modification of the adhesion properties to the extracellular matrix. Currently, fluorescence-based techniques are mainly used to detect these processes,...
Objective. In this paper, we present a technique for whole human, pig, or rat heart decellularization in order to obtain a tool for cell-matrix interaction studies and to obtain the extracellular matrix scaffold with applications to the study of card...
Mechanotransduction between cells and the extracellular matrix regulates major cellular functions in physiological and pathological situations. The effect of mechanical cues on biochemical signaling triggered by cell–matrix and cell–cell interactions...
Understanding mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) behavior on glycated collagen is crucial for advancing regenerative medicine and understanding pathological mechanisms in diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and aging. While previous research has demonstrated...
Fibrillar collagen is a one-dimensional biopolymer and is the most abundant structural protein in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of connective tissues. Due to the unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), considerable attention has been given to...
The 3D bioprinting technique has made enormous progress in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and research into diseases such as cancer. Apart from individual cells, a collection of cells, such as organoids, can be printed in combination with...
Bone tissue is among the most commonly transplanted tissues worldwide. The treatment of critical-sized bone defects remains a significant challenge, as there is currently no universally accepted experimental model or therapeutic standard. Recent adva...
Mesenchymal stem cells, also called medicinal signaling cells (MSC), have been studied regarding their potential to facilitate tissue repair for >30 years. Such cells, derived from multiple tissues and species, are capable of differentiation to a...
In bone tissue engineering, the design of in vitro models able to recreate both the chemical composition, the structural architecture, and the overall mechanical environment of the native tissue is still often neglected. In this study, we apply a bio...
In the pursuit of achieving a more realistic in vitro simulation of human biological tissues, microfluidics has emerged as a promising technology. Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) devices, a product of this technology, contain miniature tissues within microflui...
The extracellular matrix provides mechanical cues to cells within it, not just in terms of stiffness (elasticity) but also time-dependent responses to deformation (viscoelasticity). In this work, we determined the viscoelastic transformation of gelat...
Injury or damage to tissue and organs is a major health problem, resulting in about half of the world’s annual healthcare expenditure every year. Advances in the fields of stem cells (SCs) and biomaterials processing have provided a tremendous leap f...
Heparan sulfate is a ubiquitous, variably sulfated interactive glycosaminoglycan that consists of repeating disaccharides of glucuronic acid and glucosamine that are subject to a number of modifications (acetylation, de-acetylation, epimerization, su...
Endoglin (ENG) is a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) marker typically expressed by active endothelium. This transmembrane glycoprotein is shed by matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14). Our previous work demonstrated potent preclinical activity of first-in-c...
The tumor microenvironment, in particular the extracellular matrix (ECM), plays a pivotal role in controlling tumor initiation and progression. In particular, the interaction between cancer cells and the ECM promotes cancer cell growth and invasion,...
Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a β-galactoside-binding protein that influences various cell functions, including cell adhesion. We focused on the role of Gal-3 as an extracellular ligand mediating cell-matrix adhesion. We used human adipose tissue-derived ste...
Previous anatomical studies have shown different functional zones in human nasal septal cartilage (NC). These zones differ in respect to histological architecture and biochemical composition. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of...
Fibrin hydrogel is a central biological material in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. As such, fibrin is typically combined with cells and biomolecules targeted to the regenerated tissue. Previous studies have analyzed the release of...
Cancer invasion through basement membranes represents the initial step of tumor dissemination and metastasis. However, little is known about how human cancer cells breach basement membranes. Here, we used a three-dimensional in vitro invasion model c...
Reconstructing physiologically relevant in vitro tumor microenvironments (TMEs) that capture coupled biophysical and biochemical complexities remains a significant challenge in cancer modeling. Here, we present a tunable chitosan–gelatin–...
Advances in treatment of tooth injury have shown that tooth regeneration from the pulp was a viable alternative of root canal therapy. In this study, we demonstrated that Gutta-percha, nanocomposites primarily used for obturation of the canal, are no...
The tumor microenvironment (TME) has become the focus of interest in cancer research and treatment. It includes the extracellular matrix (ECM) and ECM-modifying enzymes that are secreted by cancer and neighboring cells. The ECM serves both to anchor...
Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a multifunctional cytokine that regulates the expression of ECM-associated genes during early injury. Tissue fibrosis development is driven by synergistic cues between the evolving biochemical and mec...
Colorectal cancer remains one of the most important health challenges in our society. The development of cancer immunotherapies has fostered the need to better understand the anti-tumor immune mechanisms at play in the tumor microenvironment and the...
The extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a key role during cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation by providing adhesion sites and serving as a physical scaffold. Elucidating the interaction between the cell and ECM can reveal the underlying m...
Cells sense and transmit mechanical forces exerted by their environment to the nucleus via adhesion sites and the cytoskeleton. The nucleus interprets these mechanical inputs and determines cell fate and behavior by regulating gene expression. This r...
Joint motion and postnatal stress of weight bearing are the principal factors that determine the phenotypical and architectural changes that characterize the maturation process of the meniscus. In this study, the effect of compressive forces on the m...
The tumor microenvironment represents a dynamically composed matrix in which tissue-associated cancer cells are embedded together with a variety of further cell types to form a more or less separate organ-like structure. Constantly mutual interaction...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived nanostructures that mediate intercellular communication by delivering complex signals in normal tissues and cancer. The cellular coordination required for tumor development and maintenance is mediated, in...
This study investigates the intricate dynamics of matrix stiffness, substrate composition, and cell–cell interactions and elucidates their cumulative effects on fibroblast behavior in different culture contexts. Three primary substrate types we...
The advancement achieved in Tissue Engineering is based on a careful and in-depth study of cell–tissue interactions. The choice of a specific biomaterial in Tissue Engineering is fundamental, as it represents an interface for adherent cells in...
The extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a crucial role in all parts of the eye, from maintaining clarity and hydration of the cornea and vitreous to regulating angiogenesis, intraocular pressure maintenance, and vascular signaling. This review focuses o...
Neuroinflammation is a complex and multifaceted process that involves dynamic interactions among various cellular and molecular components. This sophisticated interplay supports both environmental adaptability and system resilience in the central ner...
Many solid tumors are characterized by a dense extracellular matrix (ECM) composed of various ECM fibril proteins. These proteins provide structural support and a biological context for the residing cells. The reciprocal interactions between growing...
Background: Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumours secreting fibroblast growth factor 23 (hereinafter referred to as FGF23+ PMT) are rare neoplasms that can cause hypophosphataemic osteomalacia, owing to excessive FGF23 production. Mast cells (MCs) play a...
Keloid and hypertrophic scars are skin fibrosis-associated disorders that exhibit an uncontrollable proliferation of fibroblasts and their subsequent contribution to the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the dermis. In this stud...
Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a determinant for inflammation and fibrosis in cardiac and skeletal muscle in Chagas disease. To determine its regulatory mechanisms, we investigated the response of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected cardiomyo...
(1) Background: Owing to its ready availability and ease of acquisition, developing chick corneal tissue has long been used for research purposes. Here, we seek to ascertain the three-dimensional microanatomy and spatiotemporal interrelationships of...
Numerous cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions within the bone marrow microenvironment enable the controlled lifelong self-renewal and progeny of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). On the cellular level, this highly mutual...
The intricate multi-scale phenomenon of entropy generation, resulting from the inhomogeneous and anisotropic rearrangement of cells during their collective migration, is examined across three distinct regimes: (i) convective, (ii) conductive (diffusi...
O-Glycosylation in general has impact on a diversity of biological processes covering cellular aspects (targeted transport of glycoproteins), molecular aspects (protein conformation, resistance to proteolysis), and aspects involved in cellular commun...
Cell–matrix adhesion and cell migration are physiologically important processes that also play a major role in cancer spreading. In cultured cells, matrix adhesion depends on integrin-containing contacts such as focal adhesions. Flotillin-1 and floti...
The nonreceptor tyrosine kinase FAK is a promising target for solid tumor treatment because it promotes invasion, tumor progression, and drug resistance when overexpressed. Investigating the role of FAK in human melanoma cells, we found that both in...
The virus–host protein interactions that underlie respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) assembly are still not completely defined, despite almost 60 years of research. RSV buds from the apical surface of infected cells, once virion components have...
In this work we studied the influence of light emitting diode (LED) generated light on living cells which were cultivated in common cell culture microtiter plates. In detail we investigated signaling side effects including apoptosis by the use of a c...
Integrin-mediated cell-matrix interactions play an important role in osteogenesis. Here, we constructed a novel osteoinductive fibronectin matrix protein (oFN) for bone tissue engineering, designed to combine the integrin-binding modules from fibrone...
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important human pathogen, which infects respiratory tract epithelial cells causing bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children and the elderly. Recent studies have linked RSV matrix (M) ability to self-interaction...
Capillary morphogenesis gene 2 (CMG2) mediates cell–matrix interactions to facilitate cell adhesion and migration. CMG2 has been implicated in the disease progression of breast cancer, prostate cancer and gastric cancer. The present study aims...
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