ArticleDevelopmental cell2018
The Strength of Mechanical Forces Determines the Differentiation of Alveolar Epithelial Cells.
Article in Developmental cell, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 144 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
144 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 229 citations in OpenAlex.
- Current strategies and opportunities to manufacture cells for modeling human lungs.Advanced drug delivery reviews · 2020Pooled it
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- Prepatterned Tissue Stiffness Gradient Controls Organ shape and size.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cytoskeletal-nuclear control of alveolar fibroblast identity directs lung regeneration.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Biophysics of lumen morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- The Laryngeal Auditory Startle Reflex (LASR): A New Component of the Auditory Startle Response.The Laryngoscope · 2026Article
- Defective alveolar regeneration in emphysema: identifying dysfunctional cellular crosstalk and novel therapeutic opportunities for tissue repair.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Review
- FN-silk membrane enables alveologenesis processes and self-organization of the H441 epithelial cell line into native-like alveolar morphology.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Leveraging factors that control alveolar epithelial cell fate enables large-scale expansion for lung tissue engineering.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Unlocking Alveolar Regeneration: AT2 Stem Cells, Signaling Networks, and Therapeutic Frontiers.Stem cell reviews and reports · 2026Review
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis from a multiscale mechanobiology perspective: Mechanisms and future therapeutic prospects.iScience · 2026Review
- TP53/TAU axis regulates microtubule bundling to control alveolar stem cell-mediated regeneration.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Membrane Tension Integrates Physical and Signaling Cues to Gate Cell Fate Transitions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Mechanobiology and Resolution of Lung Fibrosis.Annual review of physiology · 2026Review
- Bioprinted Ventilated 3D Alveoliform Epithelial Sacculoids.Research square · 2025Article
- A novel alveoli-on-chip platform for modeling cyclic stretch in patient-derived alveolar epithelial cells cultured from organoids.Lab on a chip · 2025Article
- Engineering human endometrial model systems in reproductive health and disease.npj biomedical innovations · 2025Review
- Microfluidic lung cancer models: Bridging clinical treatment strategies and tumor microenvironment recapitulation.APL bioengineering · 2025Review
- Local photocrosslinking of native tissue matrix regulates lung epithelial cell mechanosensing and function.Nature materials · 2025Article
- A molecular circuit regulates fate plasticity in emerging and adult AT2 cells.Nature communications · 2025Article
84 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The differentiation of alveolar epithelial type I (AT1) and type II (AT2) cells is essential for the lung gas exchange function. Disruption of this process results in neonatal death or in severe lung diseases that last into adulthood. We developed live imaging techniques to characterize the mechanisms that control alveolar epithelial cell differentiation. We discovered that mechanical forces generated from the inhalation of amniotic fluid by fetal breathing movements are essential for AT1 cell differentiation. We found that a large subset of alveolar progenitor cells is able to protrude from the airway epithelium toward the mesenchyme in an FGF10/FGFR2 signaling-dependent manner. The cell protrusion process results in enrichment of myosin in the apical region of protruded cells; this myosin prevents these cells from being flattened by mechanical forces, thereby ensuring their AT2 cell fate. Our study demonstrates that mechanical forces and local growth factors synergistically control alveolar epithelial cell differentiation.
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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.