ArticleNature communications2018
Quantifying compressive forces between living cell layers and within tissues using elastic round microgels.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 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
64 citing papers in PubMed, 137 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanical stress remodelling drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the tumour microenvironment.Nature nanotechnology · 2026Article
- Decoding mechanoregulation in immunological synapses using biomimetic artificial cells.Nature methods · 2026Article
- Mechanics of compression-driven morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Volume and surface methods for microparticle traction force microscopy: a computational and experimental comparison.Soft matter · 2026Article
- Mechanically Programmable DNA Hydrogel Microparticles for 3D Cellular Systems.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Mechanical regulation of microenvironment remodeling in brain tumors: from mechanism to therapy.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Using tunable hydrogel microparticles to measure cellular forces.Nature protocols · 2026Review
- A customizable, low-cost 3D-printed device for live cell confinement imaging.Lab on a chip · 2026Article
- Design and optimization of in situ self-functionalizing stress sensors.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2026Article
- Heart-On-a-Chip with Integrated Ultrasoft Mechanosensors for Continuous Measurement of Cell- and Tissue-Scale Contractile Stresses.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- MechanoMR microparticle (MbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Review
- Three-dimensional traction technology and its application in mechanomedicine.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2025Review
- Probing the physical hallmarks of cancer.Nature methods · 2025Review
- STRESS, an automated geometrical characterization of deformable particles for in vivo measurements of cell and tissue mechanical stresses.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Indenting at the Microscale: Guidelines for Robust Mechanical Characterization of Alginate Microgels.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Selection of Force Sensors forTissue engineering. Part A · 2025Article
- The impact of compression and confinement in tumor growth and progression: emerging concepts in cancer mechanobiology.Frontiers in materials · 2025Article
- Microdifferential Pressure Measurement Device for Cellular Microenvironments.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Compressive stresses in cancer: characterization and implications for tumour progression and treatment.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2024Review
4 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
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Increasing evidence shows that mechanical stresses are critical in regulating cell functions, fate, and diseases. However, no methods exist that can quantify isotropic compressive stresses. Here we describe fluorescent nanoparticle-labeled, monodisperse elastic microspheres made of Arg-Gly-Asp-conjugated alginate hydrogels (elastic round microgels, ERMGs). We generate 3D displacements and calculate strains and tractions exerted on an ERMG. Average compressive tractions on an ERMG are 570 Pa within cell layers and 360 Pa in tumor-repopulating cell (TRC) colonies grown in 400-Pa matrices. 3D compressive tractions on a 1.4-kPa ERMG are applied by surrounding cells via endogenous actomyosin forces but not via mature focal adhesions. Compressive stresses are substantially heterogeneous on ERMGs within a uniform cell colony and do not increase with TRC colony sizes. Early-stage zebrafish embryos generate spatial and temporal differences in local normal and shear stresses. This ERMG method could be useful for quantifying stresses in vitro and in vivo.
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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.