Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Department Neuroscience, Berlin-Buch, Germany.
School of Medical Sciences, EMBL Australia node for Single Molecule Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2018 May;45(5):481-488. doi: 10.1111/1440-1681.12917. Epub 2018 Feb 19.
Cartilage tissue lines the joints of mammals, helping to lubricate joint movement and distribute mechanical loads. This tissue is comprised of isolated cells known as chondrocytes which are embedded in an extracellular matrix. Chondrocytes produce and maintain the cartilage by sensing and responding to changing mechanical loads. Mechanosensitive ion channels have been implicated in chondrocyte mechanotransduction and recent studies have shown that both PIEZO1 and TRPV4 can be activated by mechanical stimuli in these cells. The 2 channels mediate separate but overlapping mechanoelectrical transduction pathways, PIEZO1 in response to stretch and substrate deflections and TRPV4 in response to substrate deflections alone. These distinct pathways of mechanoelectrical transduction suggest a mechanism by which chondrocytes can distinguish between different stimuli that arise in their complex mechanical environment.
软骨组织覆盖在哺乳动物的关节处，有助于润滑关节运动并分散机械负荷。这种组织由称为软骨细胞的孤立细胞组成，这些细胞嵌入在细胞外基质中。软骨细胞通过感知和响应不断变化的机械负荷来产生和维持软骨。机械敏感离子通道已被牵涉到软骨细胞的机械转导中，最近的研究表明，PIEZO1 和 TRPV4 都可以被这些细胞中的机械刺激激活。这两个通道介导独立但重叠的机电转导途径，PIEZO1 响应拉伸和基质变形，而 TRPV4 仅响应基质变形。这些不同的机电转导途径表明了软骨细胞可以区分其复杂机械环境中出现的不同刺激的机制。
