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PMID: 15314229 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Cell mechanosensitivity controls the anisotropy of focal adhesions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 101 ·No. 34 ·2004-08-24 ·Pages 12520-5

Nicolas A, Geiger B, Safran SA

Abstract

Cellular adhesions are modulated by cytoskeletal forces or external stresses and adapt to the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix. We propose that this mechanosensitivity can be driven at least in part by the elastic, cell-contractility-induced deformations of protein molecules that form the adhesion. The model accounts for observations of anisotropic growth and shrinkage of focal adhesions in the direction of the force and predicts that focal adhesions only grow within a range of force that is determined by the composition and matrix properties. This prediction is consistent with the observations of a force threshold for the appearance of elongated focal adhesions and the disruption of adhesions into fibrils on a mobile extracellular matrix. The growth dynamics is calculated and the predicted sliding of focal adhesions is consistent with several experiments.

MeSH Terms
Anisotropy Cell Adhesion/physiology Cytoskeleton/metabolism Extracellular Matrix/metabolism Focal Adhesions/metabolism Mechanotransduction, Cellular/physiology Models, Biological Stress, Mechanical
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Nicolas Alice
Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Geiger Benjamin
Safran Samuel A
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0403539101
Published
2004-08-24
Epub
2004-00-16
Pages
12520-5
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC515090
Subset
IM
Corrections
ErratumIn
-
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0403539101 PMC Full Text View journal details
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