Hongfang Song^1,2, Aike Qiao^3,4,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.19, No.3, pp. 159-164, 2022, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2022.019005

Abstract Putting the thread through the eye of a needle is a very ordinary issues in daily life. The mechanism of putting the thread through the eye of a needle is quite similar to threading a series of polymer chains through synthetic macrocycle in bioscience. A new rubbing approach to thread through the eye of a needle was proposed in this paper, and its potential application in the fields of biomechanics and mechanobiology to mimic the micro scale assembly processes was discussed. More >

JULIANA SOARES^1,2,#, DOUGLAS G. FREITAS^1,3,#, PEDRO S. LOURENÇO^1,4, JEFTE FARIAS^1,5, BRUNO PONTES^1,2,3,4,5,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.9, pp. 2009-2013, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.019969

Abstract Mammalian cell surfaces consist of the plasma membrane supported by an underneath cortical cytoskeleton. Together, these structures can control not only the shape of cells but also a series of cellular functions ranging from migration and division to exocytosis, endocytosis and differentiation. Furthermore, the cell surface is capable of exerting and reacting to mechanical forces. Its viscoelastic properties, especially membrane tension and bending modulus, are fundamental parameters involved in these responses. This viewpoint summarizes our current knowledge on how to measure the viscoelastic properties of cell surfaces employing optical tweezers-based tether assays, paving the way for a better understanding of… More >

HAORAN SU¹, KEXIN LI¹, XIAO LIU^1,*, JING DU¹, LI WANG⁴, XIAOYAN DENG^3,*, YUBO FAN^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 797-811, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014900

Abstract Endothelial cells arranged on the vessel lumen are constantly stimulated by blood flow, blood pressure and pressureinduced cyclic stretch. These stimuli are sensed through mechanical sensory structures and converted into a series of functional responses through mechanotransduction pathways. The process will eventually affect vascular health. Therefore, there has been an urgent need to establish in vitro endothelial biomechanics and mechanobiology of models, which reproduce three-dimensional structure vascular system. In recent years, the rapid development in microfluidic technology makes it possible to replicate the key structural and functionally biomechanical characteristics of vessels. Here, we summarized the progress of microfluidic chips used… More >

Yao Guo¹, Yijiang Song², Yu Zhang¹, Li Yang^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 119-119, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07134

Abstract Osteoarthritis (OA), with its high disability and mortality rate, is the most common arthritis throughout the world [1]. Exposure of articular cartilage to excessive mechanical stress is deeply involved in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) [2,3]. However, the mechanism of how mechanical stress causes cartilage degradation is not clear yet. Here we report that bioinformatics-based integrative analyses can assist in the study of mechanisms modulated by mechanical stress within OA pathology, and we reveal that B-cell Translocation Gene 2 (BTG2) can be a mechanosensitive gene involved in OA development. We obtained OA-associated differentially expressed genes from human and rat datasets… More >

Linhong Deng^1,*, Yang Jin², Mingzhi Luo¹

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 80-80, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07370

Abstract Airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) exists within the bronchial airway wall in a form of spirally winding bundles [1]. This pattern emerges early during embryonic development and is involved in airway branching [2], providing the airway appropriate contractile capacity and resistance to circumferential tension in health or causing excessive airway narrowing in disease such as asthma. Despite its importance, the cause of ASMCs self-organization remains largely a mystery. Previously, we have demonstrated in 2D that ASMCs can sense the curvature in their microenvironment and change behaviors in differentiation, orientation and migration accordingly [3]. Here we further explore in 3D microenvironment… More >

Dominique P. Pioletti^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 29-30, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07050

Abstract From a mechanical point of view, articular cartilage can be considered as a viscoelastic porous material. Its dissipation capabilities are therefore central for its functional behavior. Based on this observation, we focused our studies of dissipative aspects in cartilage either from a biomechanical or mechanobiological point of view. In particular, we capitalized on the new obtained insight of dissipative behavior or sources in materials for the development of functional biomaterials for cartilage tissue engineering. We pioneered in proposing dissipation as a mechanobiological variable for cartilage tissue engineering [1]. As can be observed on Fig. 1, a correlation exists between the… More >

Ning Wang^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 21-21, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07550

Abstract Decades ago YC Fung proposed that mechanical stress could have substantial impacts on remodeling and growth of living tissues. Fung also proposed the concept of residual stress in blood vessels and quantified residual stress in excised arteries [1]. However, how stress influences cell and tissue functions remains elusive. At the cellular level, we have quantified myosin II mediated pre-existing tensile stress (prestress) in living cells and demonstrated that the prestress (the endogenous cytoskeletal tension) regulates cell stiffness, gene expression, and long-distance stress propagation in the cytoplasm to activate enzymes [2]. The prestress even impacts on force-induced direct chromatin stretching and… More >

Mohammad R. K. Mofrad^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 19-20, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07429

Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

Kairong Qin^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 13-14, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05703

Abstract Common carotid arteries (CCAs) are the major arteries supplying blood to the brain, and the hemodynamic variables in which are closely associated with the cardiovascular diseases. Exercise can induce the hemodynamic responses in the CCAs, including variations in blood pressure, circumferential stretch, and wall shear stress (WSS). Mechanosensors in the endothelial cells (ECs) are able to sense and distinguish these variations as mechanical signals, and transmit them into the interior of cells to affect cellular morphology and gene expression. Notably, reasonable exercises improve arterial structure and function, while unreasonable exercises cause endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, studies on the modulation of common… More >

Shaoxiong Yang¹, Xiaobo Gong^1,*, Yingxin Qi², Zonglai Jiang²

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 9-10, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05701

Abstract Blood vessels interact with their mechanical environments in a comprehensive way. Local mechanical stimuli outside the biological range play important roles in various human cardiovascular diseases. Although many mechanobiological studies of endothelial cells (ECs) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in vitro have been reported in mimicking cellular dysfunctions, their quantitative correlations to the in vivo vascular conditions remain unclear. In order to interpret the stress-modulated dysfunctions of vascular cells and explore the key mechanical factors in vascular diseases, it is important to investigate the mechanical environments of vessel walls in vivo under various physiological conditions. Based on nonlinear continuum… More >