“…Importantly, both the AKT and the profibrotic TGFβ pathways that drive cardiac hypertrophy and interstitial fibrosis are mechanoresponsive, largely through pathways sensitive to inputs from cellular adhesions and/or the state of the actomyosin cytoskeleton (Iijima et al , 2002; Balasubramanian and Kuppuswamy, 2003; Gomez et al , 2010; Young et al , 2014; Hinz, 2015; O’Connor et al , 2015; Varney et al , 2016). Models of LINC complex ablation provide an opportunity to test whether communication of mechanical signals from the cytoskeleton to the nuclear interior (Lammerding et al , 2004; Lee et al , 2007; Hale et al , 2008; Stewart-Hutchinson et al , 2008; Luxton et al , 2010; Folker et al , 2011; Khatau et al , 2012; Long et al , 2013; Myat et al , 2015; Stewart et al , 2015) contributes to myocardium function, although to date this avenue of investigation has been largely unexplored.…”