ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2002
Mechanisms of polarization of the shape of fibroblasts and epitheliocytes: Separation of the roles of microtubules and Rho-dependent actin-myosin contractility.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards a systems-level view of the microtubule cytoskeleton and its functions in physiology and disease.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- Article
- Microtubule organization and tubulin post-translational modifications in intact tissues and during regeneration in calcareous sponges.Cell and tissue research · 2025Article
- Microtubules Disruption Alters the Cellular Structures and Mechanics Depending on Underlying Chemical Cues.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Curvature Perception of Mesenchymal Cells on Mesoscale Topographies.Advanced healthcare materials · 2025Article
- Megakaryocyte-induced contraction of plasma clots: cellular mechanisms and structural mechanobiology.Blood · 2024Article
- Optical coherence microscopy with a split-spectrum image reconstruction method for temporal-dynamics contrast-based imaging of intracellular motility.Biomedical optics express · 2023Article
- The Role of Cytoskeleton Revealed by Quartz Crystal Microbalance and Digital Holographic Microscopy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Colonization of distant organs by tumor cells generating circulating homotypic clusters adaptive to fluid shear stress.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mechanosensing dysregulation in the fibroblast: A hallmark of the aging heart.Ageing research reviews · 2020Review
- Replicative senescence in MSCWJ-1 human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells is marked by characteristic changes in motility, cytoskeletal organization, and RhoA localization.Molecular biology reports · 2020Article
- Multivariate analysis reveals activation-primed fibroblast geometric states in engineered 3D tumor microenvironments.Molecular biology of the cell · 2020Article
- A novel, small peptide with activity against human pancreatic cancer.American journal of cancer research · 2020Article
- Mechanical Model for Durotactic Cell Migration.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2019Article
- Spatial Regulation of Mitochondrial Heterogeneity by Stromal Confinement in Micropatterned Tumor Models.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Multinucleation of Incubated Cells and Their Morphological Differences Compared to Mononuclear Cells.Micromachines · 2019Article
- Dynamic microtubules drive fibroblast spreading.Biology open · 2018Article
- ARHGAP42 is activated by Src-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation to promote cell motility.Journal of cell science · 2017Article
- Rho kinase proteins display aberrant upregulation in vascular tumors and contribute to vascular tumor growth.BMC cancer · 2017Article
- Contact guidance requires spatial control of leading-edge protrusion.Molecular biology of the cell · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cultured fibroblasts possess a characteristic polarized phenotype manifested by an elongate cell body with an anterior lamella whose cell edge is divided into protrusion-forming and inactive zones. Disruption of the fibroblast microtubule cytoskeleton leads to an increase in Rho-dependent acto-myosin contractile activity and concomitant loss of structural polarity. The functional relationship of myosin-driven contractile activity to loss of fibroblast anterior-posterior polarity is unknown. To dissect the roles of microtubule assembly and of Rho-dependent contractility on structural polarization of cells, polarized fibroblasts and nonpolarized epitheliocytes were treated with the microtubule-depolymerizing drug, nocodazole, and/or the Rho kinase inhibitor, Y-27632. Fibroblasts incubated with Y-27632 increased their degree of polarization by developing a highly elongate cell body with multiple narrow processes extended from the edges of the cell. Treatment of fibroblasts with nocodazole, alone or in combination with Rho kinase inhibitor, produced discoid or polygonal cells having broad, flattened lamellae that did not form long lamellar extensions. Single cultured epitheliocytes of the IAR-2 line do not display anterior-posterior polarization. When treated with Y-27632, the cells acquired a polarized, elongate shape with narrow protrusions and wide lamellas. Nocodazole alone or in combination with Y-27632 did not change the discoid shape of epitheliocytes, however treatment with Y-27632 produced thinning of the lamellar cytoplasm. We conclude that microtubules provide the necessary framework for polarization of fibroblasts and epitheliocytes, whereas Rho-regulated contractility modulates the degree of polarization of fibroblasts and completely inhibits polarization in epitheliocytes.
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