Transmit and Protect: The Mechanical Functions of Intermediate Filaments

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Cell Biol

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2023 Nov 20

PMID 37984009

Authors

Katarzyna Pogoda

Paul A Janmey

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

New aspects of the unique mechanical properties of intermediate filaments (IFs) continue to emerge from studies that illuminate the structure and mechanical response of single filaments, the interaction of intermediate filaments with each other or with other cytoskeletal elements, and the viscoelasticity of the networks that these intermediate filaments form. The relation of purified IF network mechanics to the role of IFs in cells and tissues is a particularly active area, with several new demonstrations of the unique and essential role that intermediate filament networks play in determining the mechanical response of biological materials, especially to large deformations, and the mechanisms by which intermediate filaments protect the nucleus from mechanical stresses that cells and tissues encounter in vivo.

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