Cell Responses to the Mechanochemical Microenvironment--implications for Regenerative Medicine and Drug Delivery

Overview

Journal Adv Drug Deliv Rev

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2007 Sep 29

PMID 17900747

Citations 105

Authors

Florian Rehfeldt

Adam J Engler

Adam Eckhardt

Fariyal Ahmed

Dennis E Discher

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Soft-tissue cells are surprisingly sensitive to the elasticity of their microenvironment, suggesting that traditional culture plastic and glass are less relevant to tissue regeneration and chemotherapeutics than might be achieved. Cells grown on gels that mimic the elasticity of tissue reveal a significant influence of matrix elasticity on adhesion, cytoskeletal organization, and even the differentiation of human adult derived stem cells. Cellular forces and feedback are keys to how cells feel their mechanical microenvironment, but detailed molecular mechanisms are still being elucidated. This review summarizes our initial findings for multipotent stem cells and also the elasticity-coupled effects of drugs on cancer cells and smooth muscle cells. The drugs include the contractility inhibitor blebbistatin, the proliferation inhibitor mitomycin C, an apoptotis-inducing antibody against CD47, and the translation inhibitor cycloheximide. The differential effects not only lend insight into mechano-sensing of the substrate by cells, but also have important implications for regeneration and molecular therapies.

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