Tseng Pei-Li, Sun Weiwei, Salem Ahmed, Alaklobie Mubarak, Macfarlane Sarah C, Gad Annica K B, Collins Mark O, Erdmann Kai S
School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Sheba University, Sheba, Libya.
iScience. 2025 Mar 22;28(4):112273. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112273. eCollection 2025 Apr 18.
Cells sense mechanical cues and convert them into biochemical responses to regulate biological processes such as embryonic development, aging, cellular homeostasis, and disease progression. In this study, we introduce a large-scale, systematic approach to identify proteins with mechanosensitive nuclear localization, highlighting their potential roles in mechanotransduction. Among the proteins identified, we focus here on the splicing factor PTBP1. We demonstrate that its nuclear abundance is regulated by mechanical cues such as cell density, size, and extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness and that PTBP1 medicates the mechanosensitive alternative splicing of the endocytic adapter protein Numb. Furthermore, we show that PTBP1 and Numb alternative splicing is critical for ECM stiffness-induced epithelial cell spreading and proliferation as well as for mesenchymal stem cell differentiation into osteoblasts on a stiff matrix. Our results underscore the emerging role of alternative splicing in mechanotransduction and provide novel mechanistic insights into how matrix stiffness modulates cellular mechanoresponses.
细胞感知机械信号并将其转化为生化反应,以调节诸如胚胎发育、衰老、细胞内稳态和疾病进展等生物学过程。在本研究中,我们引入了一种大规模、系统性的方法来鉴定具有机械敏感性核定位的蛋白质,突出它们在机械转导中的潜在作用。在鉴定出的蛋白质中,我们在此聚焦于剪接因子PTBP1。我们证明其核丰度受细胞密度、大小和细胞外基质(ECM)硬度等机械信号调控,并且PTBP1介导内吞衔接蛋白Numb的机械敏感性可变剪接。此外,我们表明PTBP1和Numb的可变剪接对于ECM硬度诱导的上皮细胞铺展和增殖以及间充质干细胞在坚硬基质上分化为成骨细胞至关重要。我们的结果强调了可变剪接在机械转导中的新作用,并为基质硬度如何调节细胞机械反应提供了新的机制见解。