ArticleNature materials2021
Enhanced substrate stress relaxation promotes filopodia-mediated cell migration.
Article in Nature materials, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 142 papers.
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Who cites it
142 citing papers in PubMed, 250 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nuclear mechanotransduction: tools for mechanical perturbation and chromatin characterization.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2026Review
- Chemical Strategies for Multistimuli Responsive Dynamic Covalent Materials in Regenerative Medicine.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Review
- Linker Molar Mass-Driven Control over Supramolecular Network Relaxation and Architecture in BTA Hydrogels.Macromolecules · 2026Article
- Traction Force Microscopy for Viscoelastic Substrates: A Semi-Analytical Method.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- A continuous adhesion-enhanced osteogenic pathway in artificial scaffold drives cellular infiltration and condensed mineralization for rapid bone regeneration.Bioactive materials · 2026Article
- Versican regulating viscoelasticity drives pleural fibrosis via mechanotransductive signaling.JCI insight · 2026Article
- Histaminylation alters collagen matrix mechanics and attenuates cardiac fibrosis post-myocardial infarction via mechanotransduction signaling axis.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- Fiber-Based Hydrogels for Designing Viscoelastic Responses in Particle-Based Biomaterials That Support Embedded 3D Printing.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2026Article
- Nanoparticle-enabled tuning of cell density for enhanced adhesion and tissue repair.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Tough and Rapidly Relaxing Hydrogels Via Programmable Crosslink Kinetics.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Stress relaxation timescale and hydrogel network connectivity regulate neural progenitor cell stemness and differentiation.Journal of materials chemistry. B · 2026Article
- Sp1 mechanotransduction regulates breast cancer cell invasion in engineered viscoelastic extracellular matrices.Biomaterials · 2026Article
- Matrix stress relaxation promotes glioblastoma cell migration in a ligand-specific manner.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Matrix viscoelasticity regulates dermal fibroblast activation in a three-dimensional fibrillar microenvironment.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Dynamic matrix engineering promotes nascent protein deposition to drive cell migration and expedite Re-epithelization in chronic wound.Bioactive materials · 2026Article
- Mechanical regulation of metabolism, epigenetics, and their interplay.npj biomedical innovations · 2026Review
- Glassy adhesion dynamics govern transitions between sub-diffusive and super-diffusive cancer cell migration on viscoelastic substrates.Nature communications · 2026Article
- 3D biomimetic niche modulates embryo development in vitro.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Biowaste-based hydroxyapatite for bone repair: synthesis from Anadara granosa and Achatina fulica: preliminary study.Brazilian oral research · 2026Article
82 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cell migration on two-dimensional substrates is typically characterized by lamellipodia at the leading edge, mature focal adhesions and spread morphologies. These observations result from adherent cell migration studies on stiff, elastic substrates, because most cells do not migrate on soft, elastic substrates. However, many biological tissues are soft and viscoelastic, exhibiting stress relaxation over time in response to a deformation. Here, we have systematically investigated the impact of substrate stress relaxation on cell migration on soft substrates. We observed that cells migrate minimally on substrates with an elastic modulus of 2 kPa that are elastic or exhibit slow stress relaxation, but migrate robustly on 2-kPa substrates that exhibit fast stress relaxation. Strikingly, migrating cells were not spread out and did not extend lamellipodial protrusions, but were instead rounded, with filopodia protrusions extending at the leading edge, and exhibited small nascent adhesions. Computational models of cell migration based on a motor-clutch framework predict the observed impact of substrate stress relaxation on cell migration and filopodia dynamics. Our findings establish substrate stress relaxation as a key requirement for robust cell migration on soft substrates and uncover a mode of two-dimensional cell migration marked by round morphologies, filopodia protrusions and weak adhesions.
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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.