ArticleNature communications2015
Cyclic stretching of soft substrates induces spreading and growth.
Article in Nature communications, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 157 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
157 citing papers in PubMed, 306 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Cyclic mechanical stretch suppresses intrinsic apoptosis in high metastatic melanoma.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- Development of a Multi-Channel and Multilayered PDMS Microfluidic Platform for Real-Time Visualization and Multi-Condition Parallel Testing of Mechanically Stimulated Cells.Micromachines · 2026Article
- Nuclear Mechanotransduction Across the Metastatic Cascade: Decoding Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity in Cancer Dissemination.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Mechanobiology of the Hippo-YAP Signaling Network.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2026Article
- Advances and applications of organ-on-a-chip technology.Cell reports methods · 2026Review
- The Nemp1-Nesprin complex mediates cellular responses to matrix mechanics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Photothermally Powered 3D Microgels Mechanically Regulate Mesenchymal Stem Cells Under Anisotropic Force.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Network-Associated Mechanotransduction in Health and Disease.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2026Review
- The role of extracellular matrix stiffness in regulating fibroblast behaviors and disease progression.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- The importance of mechanical forces in chronic respiratory diseases.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Review
- Epidermal growth factor receptor is an essential component in E-cadherin force transduction complexes.Journal of cell science · 2025Article
- Biomechanical research using advanced micro-nano devices: In-Vitro cell Characterization focus.Journal of advanced research · 2025Review
- Adherent cells undergo rate softening mediated by actomyosin kinetics.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Nucleo-cytoskeletal coupling controls intracellular deformation partitioning during cell stretching.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Compressive Forces Induce Epigenetic Activation of Aged Human Dermal Fibroblasts Through ERK Signaling Pathway.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Hippo Pathway Regulates Cell Proliferation in Skin Epidermis Exposed to Mechanical Forces.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Synphilin-1 regulates mechanotransduction in rigidity sensing through interaction with zyxin.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2025Article
97 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
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the body, soft tissues often undergo cycles of stretching and relaxation that may affect cell behaviour without changing matrix rigidity. To determine whether transient forces can substitute for a rigid matrix, we stretched soft pillar arrays. Surprisingly, 1-5% cyclic stretching over a frequency range of 0.01-10 Hz caused spreading and stress fibre formation (optimum 0.1 Hz) that persisted after 4 h of stretching. Similarly, stretching increased cell growth rates on soft pillars comparative to rigid substrates. Of possible factors linked to fibroblast growth, MRTF-A (myocardin-related transcription factor-A) moved to the nucleus in 2 h of cyclic stretching and reversed on cessation; but YAP (Yes-associated protein) moved much later. Knockdown of either MRTF-A or YAP blocked stretch-dependent growth. Thus, we suggest that the repeated pulling from a soft matrix can substitute for a stiff matrix in stimulating spreading, stress fibre formation and growth.
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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.