Mechanotransduction-The relationship between gravity, cells and tensile loading in extracellular matrix

Frederick H Silver

doi:10.32604/biocell.2022.017406

Abstract

Gravity plays a central role in vertebrate development and evolution. Mechanotransduction involves the tensile tethering of veins and arteries, connections between the epidermis and dermis in skin, tensile stress concentrations that occur at tissue interfaces, cell-cell interactions, cell-collagen fiber stress transfer in extracellular matrix and fluid shear flow. While attention in the past has been directed at understanding the myriad of biochemical players associated with mechanotransduction pathways, less attention has been focused on determining the tensile mechanical behavior of tissues in vivo. Fibroblasts sit on the surface of collagen fibers in living skin and exert a retractile force on the fibers. This retractile force pulls against the tension in collagen fibers in skin. After fibroblast-collagen fiber interactions are altered either by changes in fibroblast adhesion or after formation of cancer associated fibroblasts, and changes in cell junctions, alterations in the retractive force leads to changes in mechanotransduction. The purpose of this paper is to present a model of tensile forces that occur at the fibroblast-collagen fiber interface and how these forces are important in extracellular matrix physiology in health and disease.

Highlights

Gravity plays a central role in vertebrate development and evolution
Mechanotranduction involves the tensile tethering of veins and arteries in the cardiovascular system (Silver et al, 2021), connections between the epidermis and dermis in skin (Silver et al, 2002a), tensile stress concentrations that occur at interfaces between implants and natural tissues (Silver et al, 2018), cell-cell interactions at cell attachments (Dasgupta and McCollum, 2019), cell-collagen fiber stress transfer in extracellular matrix (ECM) (Silver and Siperko, 2003), and fluid shear flow in chondrocytes and bone cells (Pattappa et al, 2019; Jin et al, 2020)
Shear behavior of cardiovascular tissue, bone and other tissues where mechanotransduction has been shown to be influenced by fluid shear forces gives valuable information (Pattappa et al, 2019; Li et al, 2019; Jin et al, 2020); for most tissues the tensile forces that exist between cells and the collagen fibers provide a feed-back system that may be a factor that shifts the balance between tissue anabolism and catabolism

Summary

Introduction

Gravity plays a central role in vertebrate development and evolution. Gravitational forces acting on mammalian tissues cause the net muscle forces required for locomotion to be higher on earth than on a body subjected to a microgravitational field (Silver, 2006). Mechanotranduction involves the tensile tethering of veins and arteries in the cardiovascular system (Silver et al, 2021), connections between the epidermis and dermis in skin (Silver et al, 2002a), tensile stress concentrations that occur at interfaces between implants and natural tissues (Silver et al, 2018), cell-cell interactions at cell attachments (Dasgupta and McCollum, 2019), cell-collagen fiber stress transfer in extracellular matrix (ECM) (Silver and Siperko, 2003), and fluid shear flow in chondrocytes and bone cells (Pattappa et al, 2019; Jin et al, 2020).

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