ReviewNature2020
Effects of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity on cellular behaviour.
Review in Nature, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1,042 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
1,042 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 2,081 citations in OpenAlex.
- The rise and evolution of cancer mechanobiology: a bibliometric trajectory of three decades of research.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Interpretable AI-driven materiomics to decode microenvironmental cues for stem cell immunomodulation.Bioactive materials · 2027Article
- Integration of nuclear mechanosensing with integrin-extracellular matrix adhesions.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2026Review
- Nuclear mechanotransduction: tools for mechanical perturbation and chromatin characterization.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2026Review
- Mechano-immunomodulatory biomaterials: From immune mechanosensing to translational design.Bioactive materials · 2026Review
- Article
- Physical continuity at biomaterial-ECM interfaces is associated with reduced fibroblast activation and NF-κB signaling.Biomaterials · 2026Article
- A viscoelastic suspension culture strategy modulating fusion and development in blood vessel organoids.Bioactive materials · 2026Article
- Engineering human multi-organ tissue chip niches for drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity prediction.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Review
- Chemical Strategies for Multistimuli Responsive Dynamic Covalent Materials in Regenerative Medicine.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Optical Detection of Cellular Signals at Material Interfaces.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Real-Time Monitoring of Mass and Mechanical Properties in Single Cells and Multicellular Spheroids.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Heterogeneity in cancer: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic strategies.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Understanding and targeting the tumour matrisome.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- Concentration-Dependent Rheological Properties of Atelocollagen Are Associated with Fibroblast Mechanotransduction and Collagen Remodeling in Aged Skin.Journal of functional biomaterials · 2026Article
- Decoding Cytoskeletal Mechanobiology with Tunable Microenvironments.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2026Article
- Prepatterned Tissue Stiffness Gradient Controls Organ shape and size.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Approaches for recapitulating the extracellular matrix in organs-on-chip.Cell biomaterials · 2026Article
- Matrix Stiffness Orchestrates Mesenchymal Stem Cell Lineage Commitment Toward Osteogenesis and Adipogenesis Through the PIEZO1/SP1/STC2 Axis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Dynamic control of cell state transitions during tissue morphogenesis.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
982 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
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Substantial research over the past two decades has established that extracellular matrix (ECM) elasticity, or stiffness, affects fundamental cellular processes, including spreading, growth, proliferation, migration, differentiation and organoid formation. Linearly elastic polyacrylamide hydrogels and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers coated with ECM proteins are widely used to assess the role of stiffness, and results from such experiments are often assumed to reproduce the effect of the mechanical environment experienced by cells in vivo. However, tissues and ECMs are not linearly elastic materials-they exhibit far more complex mechanical behaviours, including viscoelasticity (a time-dependent response to loading or deformation), as well as mechanical plasticity and nonlinear elasticity. Here we review the complex mechanical behaviours of tissues and ECMs, discuss the effect of ECM viscoelasticity on cells, and describe the potential use of viscoelastic biomaterials in regenerative medicine. Recent work has revealed that matrix viscoelasticity regulates these same fundamental cell processes, and can promote behaviours that are not observed with elastic hydrogels in both two- and three-dimensional culture microenvironments. These findings have provided insights into cell-matrix interactions and how these interactions differentially modulate mechano-sensitive molecular pathways in cells. Moreover, these results suggest design guidelines for the next generation of biomaterials, with the goal of matching tissue and ECM mechanics for in vitro tissue models and applications in regenerative medicine.
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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.