Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells
Abstract Epithelial cells experience long lasting loads of different magnitudes and rates. How they adapt to these loads strongly impacts tissue health. Yet, much remains unknown about the evolution of cellular stress in response to sustained strain. Here, by subjecting cell pairs to sustained strai...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Communications Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08210-9 |
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| _version_ | 1850231155851264000 |
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| author | Bahareh Tajvidi Safa Jordan Rosenbohm Amir Monemian Esfahani Grayson Minnick Amir Ostadi Moghaddam Nickolay V. Lavrik Changjin Huang Guillaume Charras Alexandre Kabla Ruiguo Yang |
| author_facet | Bahareh Tajvidi Safa Jordan Rosenbohm Amir Monemian Esfahani Grayson Minnick Amir Ostadi Moghaddam Nickolay V. Lavrik Changjin Huang Guillaume Charras Alexandre Kabla Ruiguo Yang |
| author_sort | Bahareh Tajvidi Safa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Epithelial cells experience long lasting loads of different magnitudes and rates. How they adapt to these loads strongly impacts tissue health. Yet, much remains unknown about the evolution of cellular stress in response to sustained strain. Here, by subjecting cell pairs to sustained strain, we report a bimodal stress response, where in addition to the typically observed stress relaxation, a subset of cells exhibits a dynamic tensioning process with significant elevation in stress within 100 s, resembling active pulling-back in muscle fibers. Strikingly, the fraction of cells exhibiting tensioning increases with increasing strain rate. The tensioning response is accompanied by actin remodeling, and perturbation to actin abrogates it, supporting cell contractility’s role in the response. Collectively, our data show that epithelial cells adjust their tensional states over short timescales in a strain-rate dependent manner to adapt to sustained strains, demonstrating that the active pulling-back behavior could be a common protective mechanism against environmental stress. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-80c1649ca3894dfdbf8e91c0b1c02d88 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2399-3642 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-80c1649ca3894dfdbf8e91c0b1c02d882025-08-20T02:03:38ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Biology2399-36422025-05-018111210.1038/s42003-025-08210-9Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cellsBahareh Tajvidi Safa0Jordan Rosenbohm1Amir Monemian Esfahani2Grayson Minnick3Amir Ostadi Moghaddam4Nickolay V. Lavrik5Changjin Huang6Guillaume Charras7Alexandre Kabla8Ruiguo Yang9Department of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State UniversityDepartment of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-LincolnDepartment of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-LincolnDepartment of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-LincolnDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State UniversityCenter for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National LaboratorySchool of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological UniversityLondon Centre for Nanotechnology, University College LondonDepartment of Engineering, University of CambridgeDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State UniversityAbstract Epithelial cells experience long lasting loads of different magnitudes and rates. How they adapt to these loads strongly impacts tissue health. Yet, much remains unknown about the evolution of cellular stress in response to sustained strain. Here, by subjecting cell pairs to sustained strain, we report a bimodal stress response, where in addition to the typically observed stress relaxation, a subset of cells exhibits a dynamic tensioning process with significant elevation in stress within 100 s, resembling active pulling-back in muscle fibers. Strikingly, the fraction of cells exhibiting tensioning increases with increasing strain rate. The tensioning response is accompanied by actin remodeling, and perturbation to actin abrogates it, supporting cell contractility’s role in the response. Collectively, our data show that epithelial cells adjust their tensional states over short timescales in a strain-rate dependent manner to adapt to sustained strains, demonstrating that the active pulling-back behavior could be a common protective mechanism against environmental stress.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08210-9 |
| spellingShingle | Bahareh Tajvidi Safa Jordan Rosenbohm Amir Monemian Esfahani Grayson Minnick Amir Ostadi Moghaddam Nickolay V. Lavrik Changjin Huang Guillaume Charras Alexandre Kabla Ruiguo Yang Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells Communications Biology |
| title | Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| title_full | Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| title_fullStr | Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| title_short | Sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| title_sort | sustained strain applied at high rates drives dynamic tensioning in epithelial cells |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08210-9 |
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