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Integrins, tensegrity, and mechanotransductionPhysical forces, such as those due to gravity, play an important role in tissue development and remodeling. Yet, little is known about how individual cells sense mechanical signals or how they transduce them into a chemical response. Rather than listing the numerous signal pathways that have been found to be sensitive to mechanical stimulation, we need to place potential molecular signaling mechanisms within the context of the entire cell. The model presented is based on the concept that cells use tensegrity architecture to organize their cytoskeleton and stabilize their form. Studies with stick and string tensegrity cell models predict that living cells are hard-wired to respond immediately to external mechanical stresses. This hard-wiring exists in the form of discrete cytoskeletal filament networks that mechanically couple specific cell surface receptors, such as integrins, to nuclear matrix scaffolds and to potential transducing molecules that physically associate with the cytoskeleton. If these signaling molecules do function in a "solid-state", then mechanical stresses may be transduced into biochemical responses through force-dependent changes in cytoskeletal geometry or through local alterations in thermodynamic or kinetic parameters. Changes in cytoskeletal tension (prestress) also may play a role in signal amplification and adaptation. Recent experimental results are described which provide direct support for the tensegrity theory.
Document ID
20040089484
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Ingber, D. E.
(Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02115, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
June 1, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Gravitational and space biology bulletin : publication of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology
Volume: 10
Issue: 2
ISSN: 1089-988X
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Review
Non-NASA Center
NASA Discipline Cell Biology
Review, Tutorial

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