ArticleCurrent biology : CB2017
Spatiotemporally Controlled Mechanical Cues Drive Progenitor Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition Enabling Proper Heart Formation and Function.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
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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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of geometry in morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Magnetic torque-mediated early asymmetric mechanical stimulation directs structural and functional maturation in human cardiac organoids.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- StrainMapperJ: An Easy-to-Use Digital Image Correlation Toolkit for Exploring and Quantifying the Mechanics of Deforming Tissues.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2026Article
- Supracellular Mechanics and Counter-Rotational Bilateral Flows Orchestrate Posterior Morphogenesis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Shape, Strain, and Stability: Epithelia Under High Strain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mechanobiological engineering strategies for organoid culture.APL bioengineering · 2025Review
- The TissueTractor: A Device for Applying Large Strains to Tissues and Cells for Simultaneous High-Resolution Live Cell Microscopy.Small methods · 2025Article
- The dynamics of tubulogenesis in development and disease.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Review
- The TissueTractor, a device for applying large strains to tissues and cells for simultaneous high-resolution live cell microscopy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Adherens junctions as molecular regulators of emergent tissue mechanics.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2024Review
- Article
- Quantifying endodermal strains during heart tube formation in the developing chicken embryo.Journal of biomechanics · 2023Article
- The myocardium utilizes Pdgfra-PI3K signaling to steer towards the midline during heart tube formation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Chambers for Culturing and ImmobilizingCold Spring Harbor protocols · 2022Article
- Of form and function: Early cardiac morphogenesis across classical and emerging model systems.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2021Review
- Mechanics of Development.Developmental cell · 2021Review
- Xenopus Deep Cell Aggregates: A 3D Tissue Model for Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2021Article
- Fibronectin-based nanomechanical biosensors to map 3D surface strains in live cells and tissue.Nature communications · 2020Article
- From biomechanics to mechanobiology: Xenopus provides direct access to the physical principles that shape the embryo.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2020Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
During early cardiogenesis, bilateral fields of mesenchymal heart progenitor cells (HPCs) move from the anterior lateral plate mesoderm to the ventral midline, undergoing a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) en route to forming a single epithelial sheet. Through tracking of tissue-level deformations in the heart-forming region (HFR) as well as movement trajectories and traction generation of individual HPCs, we find that the onset of MET correlates with a peak in mechanical stress within the HFR and changes in HPC migratory behaviors. Small-molecule inhibitors targeting actomyosin contractility reveal a temporally specific requirement of bulk tissue compliance to regulate heart development and MET. Targeting mutant constructs to modulate contractility and compliance in the underlying endoderm, we find that MET in HPCs can be accelerated in response to microenvironmental stiffening and can be inhibited by softening. To test whether MET in HPCs was responsive to purely physical mechanical cues, we mimicked a high-stress state by injecting an inert oil droplet to generate high strain in the HFR, demonstrating that exogenously applied stress was sufficient to drive MET. MET-induced defects in anatomy result in defined functional lesions in the larval heart, implicating mechanical signaling and MET in the etiology of congenital heart defects. From this integrated analysis of HPC polarity and mechanics, we propose that normal heart development requires bilateral HPCs to undergo a critical behavioral and phenotypic transition on their way to the ventral midline, and that this transition is driven in response to the changing mechanical properties of their endoderm substrate.
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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.