Cytoskeleton and mechanical signal transduction / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:cells under mechanical stimulation can achieve their biological functions by converting mechanical signals into chemical signals through certain signal transduction mechanism. As the fibrous framework throughout a cell, cytoskeleton is one of the critical components in this process. OBJECTIVE:Through systemical y analyzing the role of the cytoskeleton in mechanical signal transduction, to provide a potential therapeutic target for the clinical treatment of cytoskeleton related diseases. METHODS:In order to search relevant articles about the mechanics mechanism of signal transduction of cytoskeleton from PubMed and CNKI databases (from 1990 to 2012), a computer-based search was performed, using the key words of“cytoskeleton, microtubules, microfilaments, intermediate filaments, mechanical stimulation, signal transduction”in English and Chinese, respectively. After eliminating literatures which were irrelevant to research purpose or containing a similar content, 48 articles were chosen for further analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Mechanical stimulation plays an important role in cellproliferation, development and apoptosis. With the gradual understanding of the biological function of cytoskeleton, people have found that cytoskeleton is one of the critical components in the process of the mechanical signal transduction. After getting mechanical stimulation, cytoskeleton can be reorganized through Rho, protein kinase C, integrin and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways, then converting the mechanical stimulation to chemical signals and finishing its biological functions final y.