ReviewSeminars in cell & developmental biology2008
Implications of a poroelastic cytoplasm for the dynamics of animal cell shape.
Review in Seminars in cell & developmental biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers.
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Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 159 citations in OpenAlex.
- CaMKII nucleates an osmotic protein supercomplex to induce cellular bleb expansion.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis is a biological principle that governs living cell structure and function.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2026Review
- Physical Forces in Regeneration of Cells and Tissues.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2025Review
- Viscoelasticity of ECM and cells-origin, measurement and correlation.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2024Review
- Confinement controls the directional cell responses to fluid forces.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Neutrophils actively swell to potentiate rapid migration.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- [Latest Findings on Phase Separation of Cytomechanical Proteins].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2024Article
- T cell migration requires ion and water influx to regulate actin polymerization.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in earlyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Switch of cell migration modes orchestrated by changes of three-dimensional lamellipodium structure and intracellular diffusion.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in earlybioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Hydrostatic pressure as a driver of cell and tissue morphogenesis.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2022Review
- Morphogenetic Roles of Hydrostatic Pressure in Animal Development.Annual review of cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Contribution of cytoplasm viscoelastic properties to mitotic spindle positioning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Blebs-Formation, Regulation, Positioning, and Role in Amoeboid Cell Migration.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Viscoelasticity, Like Forces, Plays a Role in Mechanotransduction.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Poroelastic osmoregulation of living cell volume.iScience · 2021Article
- Direct comparison of angiogenesis in natural and synthetic biomaterials reveals that matrix porosity regulates endothelial cell invasion speed and sprout diameter.Acta biomaterialia · 2021Article
- Competition between Osmotic Squeezing versus Friction-Driven Swelling of Gels.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Two views have dominated recent discussions of the physical basis of cell shape change during migration and division of animal cells: the cytoplasm can be modeled as a viscoelastic continuum, and the forces that change its shape are generated only by actin polymerization and actomyosin contractility in the cell cortex. Here, we question both views: we suggest that the cytoplasm is better described as poroelastic, and that hydrodynamic forces may be generally important for its shape dynamics. In the poroelastic view, the cytoplasm consists of a porous, elastic solid (cytoskeleton, organelles, ribosomes) penetrated by an interstitial fluid (cytosol) that moves through the pores in response to pressure gradients. If the pore size is small (30-60nm), as has been observed in some cells, pressure does not globally equilibrate on time and length scales relevant to cell motility. Pressure differences across the plasma membrane drive blebbing, and potentially other type of protrusive motility. In the poroelastic view, these pressures can be higher in one part of a cell than another, and can thus cause local shape change. Local pressure transients could be generated by actomyosin contractility, or by local activation of osmogenic ion transporters in the plasma membrane. We propose that local activation of Na(+)/H(+) antiporters (NHE1) at the front of migrating cells promotes local swelling there to help drive protrusive motility, acting in combination with actin polymerization. Local shrinking at the equator of dividing cells may similarly help drive invagination during cytokinesis, acting in combination with actomyosin contractility. Testing these hypotheses is not easy, as water is a difficult analyte to track, and will require a joint effort of the cytoskeleton and ion physiology communities.
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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.