ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2001
Mechanical behavior in living cells consistent with the tensegrity model.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 234 papers.
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Who cites it
234 citing papers in PubMed.
- Integration of nuclear mechanosensing with integrin-extracellular matrix adhesions.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2026Review
- Mechanical control in dental and jaw morphogenesis and remodeling.International journal of oral science · 2026Review
- Frequency-dependent cellular microrheology with pyramidal atomic force microscopy probes.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Why the septum thickens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology plus · 2026Review
- Dynamic Monitoring of the Mechanical Properties of Tobacco Cells Under Salt Stress by Double Resonator Piezoelectric Cytometry.Biosensors · 2026Article
- Cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis is a biological principle that governs living cell structure and function.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2026Review
- A mechanism for the disrupted redox regulation of vascular contractility during aging.iScience · 2026Article
- Network-Associated Mechanotransduction in Health and Disease.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2026Review
- Mechanical Signaling: Molecular Mechanisms, Biological Functions, Diseases, and Therapeutic Targets.MedComm · 2025Review
- GABA-independent activation of GABANature communications · 2025Article
- Development of GelMA-Based Hydrogel Scaffolds with Tunable Mechanical Properties for Applications in Peripheral Nerve Regeneration.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2025Article
- Multiscale mechanical-adapted hydrogels for the repair of intervertebral disc degeneration.Bioactive materials · 2025Article
- Article
- Hydrogels with prestressed tensegrity structures.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Optimizing Biomimetic 3D Disordered Fibrous Network Structures for Lightweight, High-Strength Materials via Deep Reinforcement Learning.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Structural response of microtubule and actin cytoskeletons to direct intracellular load.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- Direct detection of deformation modes on varying length scales in active biopolymer networks.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- 2-dimensional impact-damping electrostatic actuators with elastomer-enhanced auxetic structure.Nature communications · 2024Article
- On-demand auxeticity and co-existing pre-tension induced compression stage in a sandwich design with kinematically constrained 3D suture tiles.Nature communications · 2024Article
174 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Alternative models of cell mechanics depict the living cell as a simple mechanical continuum, porous filament gel, tensed cortical membrane, or tensegrity network that maintains a stabilizing prestress through incorporation of discrete structural elements that bear compression. Real-time microscopic analysis of cells containing GFP-labeled microtubules and associated mitochondria revealed that living cells behave like discrete structures composed of an interconnected network of actin microfilaments and microtubules when mechanical stresses are applied to cell surface integrin receptors. Quantitation of cell tractional forces and cellular prestress by using traction force microscopy confirmed that microtubules bear compression and are responsible for a significant portion of the cytoskeletal prestress that determines cell shape stability under conditions in which myosin light chain phosphorylation and intracellular calcium remained unchanged. Quantitative measurements of both static and dynamic mechanical behaviors in cells also were consistent with specific a priori predictions of the tensegrity model. These findings suggest that tensegrity represents a unified model of cell mechanics that may help to explain how mechanical behaviors emerge through collective interactions among different cytoskeletal filaments and extracellular adhesions in living cells.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.