ArticleBiophysical journal2013
Determinants of maximal force transmission in a motor-clutch model of cell traction in a compliant microenvironment.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 115 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
115 citing papers in PubMed.
- Substrate curvature and stiffness equivalence in governing cell mechanosensing.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hydrostatic pressure reduces the mechanosensitivity of cell migration.Science advances · 2026Article
- ECM-Stiffness Mediated Persistent Fibroblast Activation Requires Integrin and Formin Dependent Chromatin Remodeling.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Quantitative analysis of fibroblast migration reveals migratory states characterized by force generation, cell shape and motion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neuromechanobiology: Bridging Mechanobiology and Neuroscience Through Evidence and Open Questions.Cells · 2026Review
- Models of Cellular Mechanosensation.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2026Review
- Review
- Contact stiffness governs cell mechanosensing through molecular clutches.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Dynamic rigidity changes enable rapid cell migration on soft substrates.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- A multiscale theory for mesenchymal cell migration in straight or curved channel confinement.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- A Benzodiazepine-Derived Molecule That Interferes with the Bio-Mechanical Properties of Glioblastoma-Astrocytoma Cells Altering Their Proliferation and Migration.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The motor-clutch model in mechanobiology and mechanomedicine.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2024Review
- Mutual antagonism between CD44 and integrins in glioblastoma cell traction and migration.APL bioengineering · 2024Article
- Insights gained from computational modeling of YAP/TAZ signaling for cellular mechanotransduction.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2024Review
- The impact of tumor microenvironment: unraveling the role of physical cues in breast cancer progression.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2024Review
- Confinement induces internal flows in adherent cell aggregates.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- A modified motor-clutch model reveals that neuronal growth cones respond faster to soft substrates.Molecular biology of the cell · 2024Article
- Glioblastoma Cells Use an Integrin- and CD44-Mediated Motor-Clutch Mode of Migration in Brain Tissue.Cellular and molecular bioengineering · 2024Article
- Mechanical forces amplify TCR mechanotransduction in T cell activation and function.Applied physics reviews · 2024Review
55 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The mechanical stiffness of a cell's environment exerts a strong, but variable, influence on cell behavior and fate. For example, different cell types cultured on compliant substrates have opposite trends of cell migration and traction as a function of substrate stiffness. Here, we describe how a motor-clutch model of cell traction, which exhibits a maximum in traction force with respect to substrate stiffness, may provide a mechanistic basis for understanding how cells are tuned to sense the stiffness of specific microenvironments. We find that the optimal stiffness is generally more sensitive to clutch parameters than to motor parameters, but that single parameter changes are generally only effective over a small range of values. By contrast, dual parameter changes, such as coordinately increasing the numbers of both motors and clutches offer a larger dynamic range for tuning the optimum. The model exhibits distinct regimes: at high substrate stiffness, clutches quickly build force and fail (so-called frictional slippage), whereas at low substrate stiffness, clutches fail spontaneously before the motors can load the substrate appreciably (a second regime of frictional slippage). Between the two extremes, we find the maximum traction force, which occurs when the substrate load-and-fail cycle time equals the expected time for all clutches to bind. At this stiffness, clutches are used to their fullest extent, and motors are therefore resisted to their fullest extent. The analysis suggests that coordinate parameter shifts, such as increasing the numbers of motors and clutches, could underlie tumor progression and collective cell migration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.