ArticleNature communications2019
Dispersible hydrogel force sensors reveal patterns of solid mechanical stress in multicellular spheroid cultures.
Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 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.
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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.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mechanical regulation of cell memory.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Review
- Mechanical stress remodelling drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the tumour microenvironment.Nature nanotechnology · 2026Article
- Cellular Responses to Mechanical Cues Across Scales: From Fundamental Insights to Translational Potential.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Mechanically Programmable DNA Hydrogel Microparticles for 3D Cellular Systems.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Soft microfingers with flexible tactile sensor using liquid metal for in situ evaluation of cellular spheroid stiffness.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- UNIQUE: ultrasound non-destructive in-situ quantitative evaluation of stem cell spheroid deformability during differentiation into specific lineages.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Article
- Design and optimization of in situ self-functionalizing stress sensors.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2026Article
- Metabolic starvation-induced cell swelling drives solid stress in tumors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 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
- Mapping Collective Forces of Lung Cancer Spheroids Using Traction Force Microscopy.Biotechnology and bioengineering · 2026Article
- Biophysical Considerations in Cell Fusion.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- An animal component-free bioprocess for synthesizing 3D human matrix scaffolds using mesenchymal stromal cells.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- MechanoMR microparticle (MbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A new friend for measuring forces in living tissues.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Three-dimensional traction technology and its application in mechanomedicine.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2025Review
- Mechanical cues guide the formation and patterning of 3D spheroids in fibrous environments.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- 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
- Cartilaginous microtissues exhibit extreme resilience under compression with size-dependent mechanical properties.Biomaterials · 2025Article
- Surface tension-driven boundary growth in tumour spheroids.Interface focus · 2025Article
12 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.
Funding
Abstract
Understanding how forces orchestrate tissue formation requires technologies to map internal tissue stress at cellular length scales. Here, we develop ultrasoft mechanosensors that visibly deform under less than 10 Pascals of cell-generated stress. By incorporating these mechanosensors into multicellular spheroids, we capture the patterns of internal stress that arise during spheroid formation. We experimentally demonstrate the spontaneous generation of a tensional 'skin', only a few cell layers thick, at the spheroid surface, which correlates with activation of mechanobiological signalling pathways, and balances a compressive stress profile within the tissue. These stresses develop through cell-driven mechanical compaction at the tissue periphery, and suggest that the tissue formation process plays a critically important role in specifying mechanobiological function. The broad applicability of this technique should ultimately provide a quantitative basis to design tissues that leverage the mechanical activity of constituent cells to evolve towards a desired form and function.
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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.