Systems Perspective on Mechanobiology: Producing the Right Proteins in the Right Place at the Right Time

摘要

Mechanical forces are ubiquitous in biological systems and the field of mechanobiology has emerged with research subjects being investigated from the molecular through the cellular to the tissue level. However, there is a well-defined experimental observation on the cell biological level that can be considered as the defining core of this field, namely the finding that the morphology of adherent cells is strongly determined by the mechanical stiffness of their extracellular environment and that the cells sense this stiffness by self-generated forces (1). The biomedical relevance of this observation became even more obvious when it was discovered that stem cell differentiation can also be guided by substrate stiffness (2). Based on many experimental observations of this type, evidence has been mounting over the last decade that a close relationship exists between cellular function and the mechanics of the microenvironment, with dramatic consequences for health and disease (3).