ArticleNature materials2025
Tension anisotropy drives fibroblast phenotypic transition by self-reinforcing cell-extracellular matrix mechanical feedback.
Article in Nature materials, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 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
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- A designable twist-densification route to bioactive collagen hydrogel yarns approaching tendon-like mechanics.Bioactive materials · 2027Article
- Neural regulation of cancer: from microenvironmental hijacking to systemic circuit co-option.Cellular oncology (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2026Review
- Mechanical Intelligence in Bone Regeneration: Bridging Material and Cellular Memory for Enhanced Healing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- From Adaptive Resilience to Catastrophic Systems Collapse: Endothelial Entropy, Ferroptotic Propagation, and the Maternal Point of No Return in Emergency Peripartum Hysterectomy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Single Cell Mechanics in Disease Progression.Small science · 2026Review
- Cell-Extracellular Matrix Feedback Results in Spontaneous Cell Polarization and Heterogeneous Remodeling in 3D Isotropic and Aligned Discrete-Fiber Models of Cell-Mediated Remodeling.Cellular and molecular bioengineering · 2026Article
- Mechanostimulatory Cues Determine Intestinal Fibroblast Fate and Profibrotic Remodeling in a Physiodynamic Human Gut-on-a-Chip.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Bionic Cooling Skin for Infected Wound Healing.Nano-micro letters · 2026Article
- 3D-Printing-Assisted, Microfabricated Devices Reveal Hierarchical and Temporal Mechanosensing in High-Density Fibroblast Culture.ACS nano · 2026Article
- Forces that shape the transcriptome: Linking cellular mechanosensing to mRNA splicing.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Review
- Human cell-derived dermal-specific interwoven extracellular matrix for diabetic wound healing.Acta biomaterialia · 2026Article
- Mechanomedicine.Nature reviews bioengineering · 2026Article
- Two birds with one stone.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Single-cell insights into hepatic fibroblasts and stellate cells: heterogeneity in matrix remodelling in development, health, and disease.Npj gut and liver · 2026Review
- Extracellular matrix physical properties regulate cancer cell morphological transitions in 3D hydrogel microtissues.Acta biomaterialia · 2026Article
- A Mechano-Feedback Loop Orchestrated by SUN1/2 Governs Cellular Mechanoadaptation via Lamina-Associated Domain Remodeling.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Multicellular force coordination constructs microchannel networks for barrier-free metastasis across extracellular matrix.Science advances · 2025Article
- Mechanomedicine: Translating mechanical forces into therapeutic strategies.APL bioengineering · 2025Article
- A Micro-Engineered Heart Tissue Model of Desmin-related Cardiomyopathy Caused by Mutant αB Crystallin.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Deep learning reveals how cells pull, buckle, and navigate fibrous environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
25 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mechanical factors such as stress in the extracellular environment affect the phenotypic commitment of cells. Stress fields experienced by cells in tissues are multiaxial, but how cells integrate such information is largely unknown. Here we report that the anisotropy of stress fields is a critical factor triggering a phenotypic transition in fibroblast cells, outweighing the role of stress amplitude, a factor previously described to modulate such a transition. Combining experimental and computational approaches, we identified a self-reinforcing mechanism in which cellular protrusions interact with collagen fibres to establish tension anisotropy. This anisotropy, in turn, stabilizes the protrusions and enhances their contractile forces. Disruption of this self-reinforcing process, either by reducing tension anisotropy or by inhibiting contractile protrusions, prevents the phenotypic conversion of fibroblasts to contractile myofibroblasts. Overall, our findings support stress anisotropy as a factor modulating cellular responses, expanding our understanding of the role of mechanical forces in biological processes.
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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.