Mechanotransduction in neuronal cell development and functioning

Abstract

Although many details remain still elusive, it became increasingly evident in recent years that mechanosensing of microenvironmental biophysical cues and subsequent mechanotransduction are strongly involved in the regulation of neuronal cell development and functioning. This review gives an overview about the current understanding of brain and neuronal cell mechanobiology and how it impacts on neurogenesis, neuronal migration, differentiation, and maturation. We will focus particularly on the events in the cell/microenvironment interface and the decisive extracellular matrix (ECM) parameters (i.e. rigidity and nanometric spatial organisation of adhesion sites) that modulate integrin adhesion complex-based mechanosensing and mechanotransductive signalling. It will also be outlined how biomaterial approaches mimicking essential ECM features help to understand these processes and how they can be used to control and guide neuronal cell behaviour by providing appropriate biophysical cues. In addition, principal biophysical methods will be highlighted that have been crucial for the study of neuronal mechanobiology.

Manipulation of Axonal Outgrowth via Exogenous Low Forces

“…The optical trap (OT) is an ingenious technology in which a microbead is held through a focalized infrared laser beam mounted on a reverse microscope [132]. It can work with a range that varies directly with the intensity of the light and inversely with the dimension of the bead [133]. It also has an optimal resolution, permitting the precise manipulation of the bead.…”

Shaping Pancreatic β-Cell Differentiation and Functioning: The Influence of Mechanotransduction

“…In case of appropriate force loading, certain force thresholds in the molecular clutch will be surpassed and this causes integrin catch bond formation, talin extension, vinculin recruitment/activation, and a reinforcement of the structure. In the course of this reinforcement, integrins cluster and build up integrin adhesion complexes (IAC) by recruitment of further components such as adaptor proteins (e.g., paxillin), actin crosslinkers, and regulators (e.g., α-actinins and components of the Rho signaling machinery), signaling proteins (e.g., focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and members of Src-family of kinases) converting the IAC into a signaling platform ( Figure 2B) [109,110].…”

2019—A year in Biophysical Reviews

“…Features of the Issue included a number of interesting Commentaries written by senior (Guck 2019;Verheyen et al 2019) and junior investigators (Steward Jr. 2019) as well as Presidents of relevant Societies (Pérez 2019). The 13 contributed Letters and Reviews address fundamental basic science questions such as the reasons for heterogeneity in cell populations (Vishwakarma and Di Russo 2019) and mechanotransduction principles in neurons and other cell types (Chighizola et al 2019;Ridone et al 2019). The review articles also present latest technological developments relating to high speed atomic force microscopy (Valotteau et al 2019) and optical trapping and microscopy techniques (Boeri et al 2019;Arbore et al 2019) along with relevant nanofabrication approaches (De Masi et al 2019).…”