Essentially all organisms from bacteria to humans are mechanosensitive. Physical forces regulate a large array of physiological processes, and dysregulation of mechanical responses contributes to major human diseases. A survey of both specialized and widely expressed mechanosensitive systems suggests that physical forces provide a general means of altering protein conformation to generate signa...

Lamins are mechanosensitive and elastic components of the nuclear lamina that respond to external mechanical cues by altering gene regulation in a feedback mechanism. Numerous mutations in A-type lamins cause a plethora of diverse diseases collectively termed as laminopathies, the majority of which are characterized by irregularly shaped, fragile, and plastic nuclei. These nuclei are challenged...

Extrafibrillar Demineralization In article 2202611 by Cui Huang, Hongye Yang, and co-workers, the extrafibrillar demineralization concept is introduced into construction of tissue engineering scaffolds. The extrafibrillarly demineralized dentin facilitated mechanotransduction osteogenic differentiation stem cells, eventually brings about new ideas to develop hierarchical collagen-based biomater...

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Mechanotransduction plays a key role in both normal physiology and in diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis and hypertension. Nowhere is this more evident than in the vascular system, where fluid shear stress from blood flow plays a critical role in shaping the blood vessels and in determining their function and dysfunction. Responses to flow are mediated in part by a complex of proteins com...