AsianScientist (Nov. 8, 2016) – Researchers in Singapore have shown how cells regulate growth and proliferation in response to stiffness of the extracellular matrix that surrounds them. This study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It is becoming increasingly clear that cells react to the mechanical properties of their immediate microenvironment, called the extracellular matrix (ECM). Hence, a greater emphasis is now being placed on how the properties of ECM, such as its stiffness, shape, and curvature, can influence cellular behaviors such as the ability of a cell to grow, proliferate, adopt specialized functions, and move around.
Led by Professor Michael Sheetz, director of the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore, together with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Naotaka Nakazawa, the researchers were particularly interested in how ECM stiffness influences the synthesis of proteins related to cellular proliferation.
Their investigations brought them to how a protein called FHL2 relocates from sites near the cell membrane to inside the nucleus. At the membrane, FHL2 helps the cell attach to the ECM and receive mechanical signals; however, once inside the nucleus, it binds to specialized molecular machinery on the DNA, and drives an increase in the expression of a gene called p21 that suppresses the growth of healthy cells in soft environments.
In future studies, the researchers hope to dissect the molecular pathways involving FHL2, probe why it behaves differently in cancer cells, and decide whether targeting these molecular events can prove beneficial to cancer patients.
The article can be found at: Nakazawa et al. (2016) Matrix Mechanics Controls FHL2 Movement to the Nucleus to Activate P21 Expression.
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Source: National University of Singapore.
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