Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, and Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Sci Rep. 2011;1:147. doi: 10.1038/srep00147. Epub 2011 Nov 8.
It was our objective to study the role of mechanical stimulation on fibronectin (FN) reorganization and recruitment by exposing fibroblasts to shear fluid flow and equibiaxial stretch. Mechanical stimulation was also combined with a Rho inhibitor to probe their coupled effects on FN. Mechanically stimulated cells revealed a localization of FN around the cell periphery as well as an increase in FN fibril formation. Mechanical stimulation coupled with chemical stimulation also revealed an increase in FN fibrils around the cell periphery. Complimentary to this, fibroblasts exposed to fluid shear stress structurally rearranged pre-coated surface FN, but unstimulated and stretched cells did not. These results show that mechanical stimulation directly affected FN reorganization and recruitment, despite perturbation by chemical stimulation. Our findings will help elucidate the mechanisms of FN biosynthesis and organization by furthering the link of the role of mechanics with FN.
我们的目的是研究机械刺激对成纤维细胞纤维连接蛋白（FN）重组和募集的作用，使成纤维细胞暴露于剪切流和双轴拉伸中。机械刺激还与 Rho 抑制剂联合使用，以探究它们对 FN 的偶联效应。机械刺激的细胞显示 FN 在细胞周围的定位以及 FN 纤维形成的增加。机械刺激与化学刺激相结合也显示出细胞周围 FN 纤维的增加。与此相辅相成的是，暴露于流体切应力的成纤维细胞在结构上重新排列了预先涂覆的表面 FN，但未受刺激和拉伸的细胞则没有。这些结果表明，尽管受到化学刺激的干扰，机械刺激仍直接影响 FN 的重组和募集。我们的研究结果将有助于阐明 FN 生物合成和组织的机制，进一步将力学作用与 FN 的作用联系起来。
