ArticleNature neuroscience2016
Mechanosensing is critical for axon growth in the developing brain.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 308 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
308 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 657 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Lamellar Cells of Vertebrate Meissner and Pacinian Corpuscles: Development, Characterization, and Functions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Piezo1-mediated mechanotransduction in bone formation and fracture repair.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Review
- Piezo1 in Peripheral and Central Sensitisation: Implications for Chronic Pain.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Extrinsic Regulation of Optic Nerve Axon Regeneration in the Adult Central Nervous System.Cells · 2026Review
- Axonal defasciculation is restricted to specific branching points during regeneration of the lateral line nerve in zebrafish.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Noninvasive biophysical modulations of Piezo ion channels.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Review
- Fuel-maintenance coupling reprograms mitochondrial homeostasis to enable peripheral nerve regeneration.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- The mechanotransduction channel Piezo2 refines axonal projections to the accessory optic system and regulates the optokinetic reflex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- White matter injury in neonatal rats is attenuated by GsMTx4 inhibiting oligodendrocyte precursor cell ferroptosis via the PIEZO1/GCLC signaling pathway.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Microengineered Gradient Hydrogels for Mechanobiology.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Advancing mechanobiology from single molecules to complex cellular systems.Nature nanotechnology · 2026Review
- Sono-Mechanogenetics: Linking Ultrasound Physics With Cellular Mechanobiology.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Mechanotransduction in the Brain: Soliton Theory, Piezo Receptors and MR Elastography in Headache Pathophysiology.Brain and behavior · 2026Review
- Article
- Fluorescently Labeled Gradient Hydrogels Reveal Matrix-Dependent Cell Responses to Substrate Stiffness.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Long-range chemical signalling in vivo is regulated by mechanical signals.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Physiomimetic culture bias durotaxis toward soft environments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Compression-Tension-Asymmetry and Stiffness Nonlinearity of Collagen-Matrigel Composite Hydrogels.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Review
- Neuromechanobiology: Bridging Mechanobiology and Neuroscience Through Evidence and Open Questions.Cells · 2026Review
248 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
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
During nervous system development, neurons extend axons along well-defined pathways. The current understanding of axon pathfinding is based mainly on chemical signaling. However, growing neurons interact not only chemically but also mechanically with their environment. Here we identify mechanical signals as important regulators of axon pathfinding. In vitro, substrate stiffness determined growth patterns of Xenopus retinal ganglion cell axons. In vivo atomic force microscopy revealed a noticeable pattern of stiffness gradients in the embryonic brain. Retinal ganglion cell axons grew toward softer tissue, which was reproduced in vitro in the absence of chemical gradients. To test the importance of mechanical signals for axon growth in vivo, we altered brain stiffness, blocked mechanotransduction pharmacologically and knocked down the mechanosensitive ion channel piezo1. All treatments resulted in aberrant axonal growth and pathfinding errors, suggesting that local tissue stiffness, read out by mechanosensitive ion channels, is critically involved in instructing neuronal growth in vivo.
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.