Matrix elasticity directs stem cell lineage specification.
TL;DR: Naive mesenchymal stem cells are shown here to specify lineage and commit to phenotypes with extreme sensitivity to tissue-level elasticity, consistent with the elasticity-insensitive commitment of differentiated cell types.
About: This article is published in Cell.The article was published on 2006-08-25 and is currently open access. It has received 12204 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation & Stem cell fate determination.
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TL;DR: YAP/TAZ are identified as sensors and mediators of mechanical cues instructed by the cellular microenvironment and are functionally required for differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells induced by ECM stiffness and for survival of endothelial cells regulated by cell geometry.
Abstract: Cells perceive their microenvironment not only through soluble signals but also through physical and mechanical cues, such as extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness or confined adhesiveness. By mechanotransduction systems, cells translate these stimuli into biochemical signals controlling multiple aspects of cell behaviour, including growth, differentiation and cancer malignant progression, but how rigidity mechanosensing is ultimately linked to activity of nuclear transcription factors remains poorly understood. Here we report the identification of the Yorkie-homologues YAP (Yes-associated protein) and TAZ (transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif, also known as WWTR1) as nuclear relays of mechanical signals exerted by ECM rigidity and cell shape. This regulation requires Rho GTPase activity and tension of the actomyosin cytoskeleton, but is independent of the Hippo/LATS cascade. Crucially, YAP/TAZ are functionally required for differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells induced by ECM stiffness and for survival of endothelial cells regulated by cell geometry; conversely, expression of activated YAP overrules physical constraints in dictating cell behaviour. These findings identify YAP/TAZ as sensors and mediators of mechanical cues instructed by the cellular microenvironment.
4,120 citations
TL;DR: Reduction of lysyl oxidase-mediated collagen crosslinking prevented MMTV-Neu-induced fibrosis, decreased focal adhesions and PI3K activity, impeded malignancy, and lowered tumor incidence, and data show how collagenCrosslinking can modulate tissue fibrosis and stiffness to force focal adhesion, growth factor signaling and breast malignancies.
3,396 citations
TL;DR: The extracellular matrix and ECM proteins are important in phenomena as diverse as developmental patterning, stem cell niches, cancer, and genetic diseases and these properties need to be incorporated into considerations of the functions of the ECM.
Abstract: The extracellular matrix (ECM) and ECM proteins are important in phenomena as diverse as developmental patterning, stem cell niches, cancer, and genetic diseases. The ECM has many effects beyond providing structural support. ECM proteins typically include multiple, independently folded domains whose sequences and arrangement are highly conserved. Some of these domains bind adhesion receptors such as integrins that mediate cell-matrix adhesion and also transduce signals into cells. However, ECM proteins also bind soluble growth factors and regulate their distribution, activation, and presentation to cells. As organized, solid-phase ligands, ECM proteins can integrate complex, multivalent signals to cells in a spatially patterned and regulated fashion. These properties need to be incorporated into considerations of the functions of the ECM.
2,858 citations
TL;DR: The functional requirements, and types, of materials used in developing state of the art of scaffolds for tissue engineering applications are described and where future research and direction is required are described.
2,648 citations
TL;DR: This Review discusses how different mechanisms interact and can be integrated to exert fine control in time and space over the drug presentation, and collects experimental release data from the literature and presents quantitative comparisons between different systems to provide guidelines for the rational design of hydrogel delivery systems.
Abstract: Hydrogel delivery systems can leverage therapeutically beneficial outcomes of drug delivery and have found clinical use. Hydrogels can provide spatial and temporal control over the release of various therapeutic agents, including small-molecule drugs, macromolecular drugs and cells. Owing to their tunable physical properties, controllable degradability and capability to protect labile drugs from degradation, hydrogels serve as a platform in which various physiochemical interactions with the encapsulated drugs control their release. In this Review, we cover multiscale mechanisms underlying the design of hydrogel drug delivery systems, focusing on physical and chemical properties of the hydrogel network and the hydrogel-drug interactions across the network, mesh, and molecular (or atomistic) scales. We discuss how different mechanisms interact and can be integrated to exert fine control in time and space over the drug presentation. We also collect experimental release data from the literature, review clinical translation to date of these systems, and present quantitative comparisons between different systems to provide guidelines for the rational design of hydrogel delivery systems.
2,457 citations
References
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TL;DR: Data emphasize the potential importance of material substrate stiffness as a design feature in the next generation of biomaterials intended to promote neuronal regeneration across a lesion in the central nervous system while simultaneously minimizing the ingrowth of astrocytes into the lesion area.
725 citations
"Matrix elasticity directs stem cell..." refers background in this paper
...…Sweeney,1 and Dennis E. Discher1,2,3,4,* 1Pennsylvania Muscle Institute 2School of Engineering and Applied Science 3Cell & Molecular Biology Graduate Group 4Physics Graduate Group University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA *Contact: discher@seas.upenn.edu DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2006.06.044...
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...…or matrix microenvironments can be as physically diverse as those of brain, muscle, and bone precursor osteoid (respectively, Flanagan et al. 2002; Georges et al., 2006; Kondo et al., 2005, Engler et al., 2004a; Ferrari et al., 1998; Andrades et al., 2001; Holmbeck et al., 1999; Morinobu et al.,…...
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TL;DR: Data establish a strong association between stiffness of HASM cells and the level of tensile stress within the cytoskeleton, a hallmark of systems that secure shape stability mainly through the prestress.
Abstract: The tensegrity hypothesis holds that the cytoskeleton is a structure whose shape is stabilized predominantly by the tensile stresses borne by filamentous structures. Accordingly, cell stiffness must increase in proportion with the level of the tensile stress, which is called the prestress. Here we have tested that prediction in adherent human airway smooth muscle (HASM) cells. Traction microscopy was used to measure the distribution of contractile stresses arising at the interface between each cell and its substrate; this distribution is called the traction field. Because the traction field must be balanced by tensile stresses within the cell body, the prestress could be computed. Cell stiffness (G) was measured by oscillatory magnetic twisting cytometry. As the contractile state of the cell was modulated with graded concentrations of relaxing or contracting agonists (isoproterenol or histamine, respectively), the mean prestress ((t)) ranged from 350 to 1,900 Pa. Over that range, cell stiffness increased linearly with the prestress: G (Pa) = 0.18(t) + 92. While this association does not necessarily preclude other interpretations, it is the hallmark of systems that secure shape stability mainly through the prestress. Regardless of mechanism, these data establish a strong association between stiffness of HASM cells and the level of tensile stress within the cytoskeleton.
670 citations
"Matrix elasticity directs stem cell..." refers background in this paper
...…Sweeney,1 and Dennis E. Discher1,2,3,4,* 1Pennsylvania Muscle Institute 2School of Engineering and Applied Science 3Cell & Molecular Biology Graduate Group 4Physics Graduate Group University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA *Contact: discher@seas.upenn.edu DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2006.06.044...
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...This pulling or contractility by cells can be measured as a mean cellular prestress, s, that balances the traction stresses, t, exerted on the gel by the cell (Wang et al., 2002) (Figure 7)....
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...(McBeath et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2002)....
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TL;DR: The observation that hESC lines maintained in vitro develop genetic and epigenetic alterations implies that periodic monitoring of these lines will be required before they are used in in vivo applications and that some late-passage hESS lines may be unusable for therapeutic purposes.
Abstract: Cultured human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines are an invaluable resource because they provide a uniform and stable genetic system for functional analyses and therapeutic applications. Nevertheless, these dividing cells, like other cells, probably undergo spontaneous mutation at a rate of 10(-9) per nucleotide. Because each mutant has only a few progeny, the overall biological properties of the cell culture are not altered unless a mutation provides a survival or growth advantage. Clonal evolution that leads to emergence of a dominant mutant genotype may potentially affect cellular phenotype as well. We assessed the genomic fidelity of paired early- and late-passage hESC lines in the course of tissue culture. Relative to early-passage lines, eight of nine late-passage hESC lines had one or more genomic alterations commonly observed in human cancers, including aberrations in copy number (45%), mitochondrial DNA sequence (22%) and gene promoter methylation (90%), although the latter was essentially restricted to 2 of 14 promoters examined. The observation that hESC lines maintained in vitro develop genetic and epigenetic alterations implies that periodic monitoring of these lines will be required before they are used in in vivo applications and that some late-passage hESC lines may be unusable for therapeutic purposes.
654 citations
"Matrix elasticity directs stem cell..." refers background in this paper
...Importantly, transcriptional profiles of early versus late MSCs (up to passage 12) do not differ significantly (Table S1), even though population expansion has been suggested by others to dramatically alter MSCs (Maitra et al., 2005)....
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TL;DR: Cellular therapy for myocardial injury has improved ventricular function in both animal and clinical studies, though the mechanism of benefit is unclear, and this study was undertaken to examine the mechanisms of benefit.
Abstract: Cellular therapy for myocardial injury has improved ventricular function in both animal and clinical studies, though the mechanism of benefit is unclear. This study was undertaken to examine the effects of cellular injection after infarction on myocardial elasticity. Coronary artery ligation of Lewis rats was followed by direct injection of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the acutely ischemic myocardium. Two weeks postinfarct, myocardial elasticity was mapped by atomic force microscopy. MSC-injected hearts near the infarct region were twofold stiffer than myocardium from noninfarcted animals but softer than myocardium from vehicle-treated infarcted animals. After 8 wk, the following variables were evaluated: MSC engraftment and left ventricular geometry by histological methods, cardiac function with a pressure-volume conductance catheter, myocardial fibrosis by Masson Trichrome staining, vascularity by immunohistochemistry, and apoptosis by TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling assay. The human cells engrafted and expressed a cardiomyocyte protein but stopped short of full differentiation and did not stimulate significant angiogenesis. MSC-injected hearts showed significantly less fibrosis than controls, as well as less left ventricular dilation, reduced apoptosis, increased myocardial thickness, and preservation of systolic and diastolic cardiac function. In summary, MSC injection after myocardial infarction did not regenerate contracting cardiomyocytes but reduced the stiffness of the subsequent scar and attenuated postinfarction remodeling, preserving some cardiac function. Improving scarred heart muscle compliance could be a functional benefit of cellular cardiomyoplasty.
622 citations
"Matrix elasticity directs stem cell..." refers background in this paper
...Efficacy appears uncertain or mixed (Murry et al., 2004), and recent findings have raised the possibility that the injured microenvironment loses compliance with fibrotic scarring, producing a noninducing environment (Berry et al., 2006) that, as we show here, stem cells cannot sufficiently remodel....
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..., 2004), and recent findings have raised the possibility that the injured microenvironment loses compliance with fibrotic scarring, producing a noninducing environment (Berry et al., 2006) that, as we show here, stem cells cannot sufficiently remodel....
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TL;DR: Fundamental information regarding the 3-D microstructural-mechanical properties of the ECM and its component molecules are important to the overall understanding of cell-ECM interactions and the development of novel strategies for tissue repair and replacement.
Abstract: The importance and priority of specific micro-structural and mechanical design parameters must be established to effectively engineer scaffolds (biomaterials) that mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) environment of cells and have clinical applications as tissue substitutes. In this study, three-dimensional (3-D) matrices were prepared from type I collagen, the predominant compositional and structural component of connective tissue ECMs, and structural-mechanical relationships were studied. Polymerization conditions, including collagen concentration (0.3-3 mg/mL) and pH (6-9), were varied to obtain matrices of collagen fibrils with different microstructures. Confocal reflection microscopy was used to assess specific micro-structural features (e.g., diameter and length) and organization of component fibrils in 3-D. Microstructural analyses revealed that changes in collagen concentration affected fibril density while maintaining a relatively constant fibril diameter. On the other hand, both fibril length and diameter were affected by the pH of the polymerization reaction. Mechanically, all matrices exhibited a similar stress-strain curve with identifiable "toe," "linear," and "failure" regions. However the linear modulus and failure stress increased with collagen concentration and were correlated with an increase in fibril density. Additionally, both the linear modulus and failure stress showed an increase with pH, which was related to an increasedfibril length and a decreasedfibril diameter. The tensile mechanical properties of the collagen matrices also showed strain rate dependence. Such fundamental information regarding the 3-D microstructural-mechanical properties of the ECM and its component molecules are important to our overall understanding of cell-ECM interactions (e.g., mechanotransduction) and the development of novel strategies for tissue repair and replacement.
617 citations
"Matrix elasticity directs stem cell..." refers background in this paper
...…Sweeney,1 and Dennis E. Discher1,2,3,4,* 1Pennsylvania Muscle Institute 2School of Engineering and Applied Science 3Cell & Molecular Biology Graduate Group 4Physics Graduate Group University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA *Contact: discher@seas.upenn.edu DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2006.06.044...
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...The matrix is 350 ± 100 nm thick (Figure 2F) and has a stiffness, Eosteoid 27 ± 10 kPa (Figure 2G), that is similar to a concentrated collagen gel (Roeder et al., 2002)....
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