ArticleBiophysical journal2006
Viscoelastic retraction of single living stress fibers and its impact on cell shape, cytoskeletal organization, and extracellular matrix mechanics.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 289 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
289 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 674 citations in OpenAlex.
- Macrophage mechanobiology: from sensing to disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Sphingolipid Remodeling and Extracellular Vesicle Signatures Reflect Disease Severity in Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy Driven by Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Distinct adhesion energy and extracellular matrix profiles of healthy and osteoarthritic human chondrocytes.In vitro cellular & developmental biology. Animal · 2026Article
- Impact of static and dynamic magneto-mechanical stimulation with vortex microdiscs on glioblastoma cells cultured on 2D substrates with physiological stiffness.Nanoscale advances · 2026Article
- A Data Driven Review of In Vitro Electrical and Mechanical Stimulation for Post-Acute Phase Wound Healing.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Viscous drag-induced self-regeneration of laser-dissected actin stress fibers: A potential mechanism for mechanical memory.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2026Article
- Dynamic Modulation of the Microenvironment Promotes Functional Maturation of Engineered Tissues.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- VE-Cadherin-Actin Regulation Promotes Mechanotransduction and Monolayer Maturation Involving a Tension-Sensitive Intermediate State.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Microenvironmental stiffness directs microtubule perturbation in chondrocyte mitosis via ILK-refilinB/Smad3 axis.Bone research · 2026Article
- Cellularization in chytrid fungi uses distinct mechanisms from conventional cytokinesis and cellularization in animals and yeast.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Identification of Key Genes and Exploration of Therapeutic Targets for Chronic Tendon Injury Based on Bioinformatics and Machine Learning.International journal of general medicine · 2026Article
- Mechanisms That Prevent Vascular Leakage During Leukocyte Extravasation.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2025Review
- Cellularization in chytrid fungi uses distinct mechanisms from conventional cytokinesis and cellularization in animals and yeast.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Engineered In Vitro Platforms for Mechanochemical Control of Cell Migration.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2025Review
- F-actin dynamics regulates collective cell migration by modulating cell shape and stress correlation.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- A specific role for endothelial EPLIN-isoform-regulated actin dynamics in neutrophil transmigration.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Measuring the effect of repetitive stretching on the deformability of human red blood cells using optical tweezers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Force-activated zyxin assemblies coordinate actin nucleation and crosslinking to orchestrate stress fiber repair.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Selection of Force Sensors forTissue engineering. Part A · 2025Article
- Atomic force microscopy characterization of white and beige adipocyte differentiation.In vitro cellular & developmental biology. Animal · 2024Article
229 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cells change their form and function by assembling actin stress fibers at their base and exerting traction forces on their extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesions. Individual stress fibers are thought to be actively tensed by the action of actomyosin motors and to function as elastic cables that structurally reinforce the basal portion of the cytoskeleton; however, these principles have not been directly tested in living cells, and their significance for overall cell shape control is poorly understood. Here we combine a laser nanoscissor, traction force microscopy, and fluorescence photobleaching methods to confirm that stress fibers in living cells behave as viscoelastic cables that are tensed through the action of actomyosin motors, to quantify their retraction kinetics in situ, and to explore their contribution to overall mechanical stability of the cell and interconnected ECM. These studies reveal that viscoelastic recoil of individual stress fibers after laser severing is partially slowed by inhibition of Rho-associated kinase and virtually abolished by direct inhibition of myosin light chain kinase. Importantly, cells cultured on stiff ECM substrates can tolerate disruption of multiple stress fibers with negligible overall change in cell shape, whereas disruption of a single stress fiber in cells anchored to compliant ECM substrates compromises the entire cellular force balance, induces cytoskeletal rearrangements, and produces ECM retraction many microns away from the site of incision; this results in large-scale changes of cell shape (> 5% elongation). In addition to revealing fundamental insight into the mechanical properties and cell shape contributions of individual stress fibers and confirming that the ECM is effectively a physical extension of the cell and cytoskeleton, the technologies described here offer a novel approach to spatially map the cytoskeletal mechanics of living cells on the nanoscale.
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Registered trials
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.