Open Access
ARTICLE
Membrane fluidity regulates high shear stress-induced FAK activation at different subcellular compartments
FEI XIE1,2, BAOHONG ZHANG1,2, WENFENG XU1, XIAOLING LIAO1,*, QIUHONG HUANG1, BO LIU2,*
1
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing Engineering Laboratory of Nano/Micro Biological Medicine Detection Technology, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, 401331, China
2
School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China
* Address correspondence to: Xiaoling Liao, ; Bo Liu,
BIOCELL 2017, 41(2-3), 45-54. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2017.41.045
Abstract
Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) plays a vital role in mediating the adaptability of tumor cells under
mechanical stimuli. Previous studies revealed that FAK can locate to different cell compartments, and its
regulation is highly dependent on its subcellular localization. However, the local FAK activities and its
regulation mechanism in different cell compartments of tumor cells in response to fluid shear stress are
still unclear. In this study, 5 dyn/cm
2
and 20 dyn/cm
2
of shear stress was applied to HeLa cells for 30 min.
The activities of FAK targeting different subcellular compartments (lipids rafts, non-rafts, focal adhesions
and cytoplasm) were investigated with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) technology. Results
showed that the activity of FAK in response to high shear stress at focal adhesion sites was lower than that
of other three areas, while no difference among four areas was observed in response to low shear stress.
Furthermore, high shear stress-induced distinct FAK activation at different compartments was inhibited
by decreasing membrane fluidity, but Src inhibition prevented high shear stress-induced FAK activation
only in the cytoplasm. This study revealed the spatiotemporal characteristics of FAK under the different
magnitude of shear stress, which provides a deeper understanding of mechanotransduction in tumor cells.
Keywords
Cite This Article
XIE, F., ZHANG, B., XU, W., LIAO, X., HUANG, Q. et al. (2017). Membrane fluidity regulates high shear stress-induced FAK activation at different subcellular compartments.
BIOCELL, 41(2-3), 45–54. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2017.41.045