Showing papers in "Matrix Biology in 2020"

TL;DR: The cells and tissues of the human body are constantly exposed to exogenous and endogenous forces that are referred to as biomechanical cues, and these processes are highly relevant for disease modelling or when aiming for the development of novel therapies.

TL;DR: Fibroblast roles in the cancer, lung, and heart as example systems where fibroblasts are major contributors to homeostasis and pathology are highlighted.

TL;DR: In-depth spectral analyses demonstrated a glucose stimulation-dependent, increased mitochondrial activity, and a switch in lipid composition of insulin secreting vesicles, supporting the high performance of the pancreas-on-a-chip model.

TL;DR: Using a novel, plastic and open-access heart-on-a-chip system that is capable of continuous non-invasive monitoring of tissue contractions, this work was able to study how different micro-environmental cues affect the assembly of the cardiomyocytes into a functional cardiac tissue.

TL;DR: The disruption of matrix structure due to type III collagen deficiency outweighs the stiffening of collagen fibrils by increased cross-linking, leading to a net negative impact on tissue modulus.

TL;DR: Targeting RAAS to combat fibrosis represents a promising therapeutic approach, particularly given the lack of strategies for treating fibrosis as its own entity, thus animal and clinical studies to examine the impact of natural and synthetic substances to alter RAAS signaling as a means to treat fibrosis are reviewed.

TL;DR: The data support a mechanism by which breast cancer cells respond to stiffness and render the environment conducive to invasion, and provide important insight on the roles of matrix stiffness, composition, and organization in promoting tumor invasion.

TL;DR: F Fate mapping using tdTomato reporter, EdU chase, and quantitative immunohistological studies demonstrated that SOX9 is crucial for disc cell survival and phenotype maintenance, and microarray analysis showed that Sox9 regulated distinct compartment-specific transcriptomic landscapes.

TL;DR: This work used single cell mRNA sequencing to identify the cellular trajectories of lineage specification during limb bud development and used RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization to examine the spatial locations of cell types and cell trajectories to understand the ancestral continuum of cell maturation.

TL;DR: The components of elastic fibers and their roles in elastogenesis are revisited and how a loss of each component affects biomechanics of the aorta is discussed based on knowledge obtained from mouse models of human disease.

TL;DR: In this mini-review, current knowledge regarding cardiac fibroblast activation during MI is summarized and key areas where gaps remain are highlighted.

TL;DR: This review manuscript focuses on the mechanisms of matricyptin generation in injured and remodeling tissues with an emphasis on fibroblast-matricryptin interactions.

TL;DR: A bioengineered, 3D culture platform was used to gain new mechanistic insights into how ECM in the brain tumor microenvironment promotes resistance to chemotherapy and suggests potential avenues for the development of novel, matrix-targeted combination therapies designed to suppress chemotherapy resistance in GBM.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the peptide gels support the growth of a range of cells including human induced pluripotent stem cells and human cancer cell lines, and can be used to build disease-relevant models.

TL;DR: The switchable basement membrane adhesome is defined and two key signalling pathways within the systems that determine distinct cell morphologies are highlighted, including the key role for PKCα in matrix ligand-specific signalling.

TL;DR: In vivo experiments using pharmacological stabilization of HIF-1α or hypoxia-induced via hindlimb ischemia together with intramuscular injections of TGF-β1, and increased CCN2 expression are found suggest that hypoxic signaling together with T GF-β signaling, which are both characteristics of a fibrotic skeletal muscle environment, induce the expression of CCN 2 in skeletal muscle fibers and myotubes.

TL;DR: The ability to preserve the spatial context of cells within samples, their cellular geometry, as well as their surrounding ECM gives spatial-omics the opportunity to interrogate previously unexplored signaling modalities, which has the potential to revolutionize ECM research and the understanding of fibrotic diseases.

TL;DR: The results provide the first in vivo support to the long-held hypothesis that TonEBP is crucial for postnatal homeostasis of the spine and controls a multitude of functions in addition to cellular osmoadpatation.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate that the cleavage site determines versican turnover and that versican plays a central role in the provisional matrix during the wound repair.

TL;DR: It is concluded that stromal tenocytes likely do not play a major role in anabolic repair of tendon matrix microdamage, but rather mediate catabolic matrix breakdown and communication with extrinsic cells that are able to effect tissue repair.

TL;DR: Overall, using an in vitro controlled hydrogel system, it is shown that collagen fiber organization modulates CD8+ T cells movement via MLCK activation thus providing basis for future studies into relevant therapeutics.

TL;DR: Tissue homeostasis depends on a balance of synthesis and degradation of constituent proteins, with turnover of a given protein potentially regulated by its use and mechanisms of such mechanosensitive regulation are surveyed together with relevant interactions of collagen fibrils with cells.

TL;DR: Major developmental mesenchymal lineages are discussed, focusing on time of origin, major cell type, and other lineage derivatives, as well as the transgenic tools used to find and define them.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the tendon stromal compartment responds to aberrant mechanical unloading in a manner that is highly dependent on the vascular niche, with ROS gating a complex proteolytic breakdown of the functional collagen backbone.

TL;DR: A model-based predictions reveal network mechanisms by which the dynamics of paracrine stimuli and interacting signaling pathways drive the progression of fibroblast phenotypes and fibrosis after myocardial infarction.

TL;DR: This review discusses the dynamic and reciprocal processes between stromal cells and extracellular matrices, using pancreatic cancer as an example, to demonstrate the inclusivity of the Somatic Mutation Theory and Tissue Organization Field Theory.

TL;DR: P38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), which is part of the noncanonical transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) pathway, is a central regulator of fibroblast to myofibroblast cell state transitions that is activated by chemical and mechanical stress signals.

TL;DR: This work discusses how efforts to elucidate CAF functionality at the single-cell level have impacted understanding of the ways in which CAFs govern matrix remodeling and the influence of Matrix remodeling on the development of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.

TL;DR: The data support the defective chaperone role of the 3-hydroxylation complex as the primary cause of the skeletal phenotype in Mutant fish.

TL;DR: An essential role for collagen XI is demonstrated in regulation of tendon fibrillar structure and organization occurring primarily during development, with a significant decrease in the biomechanical properties in the absence of Col11a1.