Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The cytoskeleton provides structural integrity to cells and serves as a key component in mechanotransduction. Tensins are thought to provide a force-bearing linkage between integrins and the actin cytoskeleton; yet, direct evidence of tensin's role in mechanotransduction is lacking. We here report that local force application to epithelial cells using a micrometer-sized needle leads to rapid accumulation of cten (tensin 4), but not tensin 1, along a fibrous intracellular network. Surprisingly, cten-positive fibers are not actin fibers; instead, these fibers are keratin intermediate filaments. The dissociation of cten from tension-free keratin fibers depends on the duration of cell stretch, demonstrating that the external force favors maturation of cten-keratin network interactions over time and that keratin fibers retain remarkable structural memory of a cell's force-bearing state. These results establish the keratin network as an integral part of force-sensing elements recruiting distinct proteins like cten and suggest the existence of a mechanotransduction pathway via keratin network.
Institution: University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Directorate for Engineering, University of California, Davis, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
OpenAlex ID: W2973962218