- Email: [email protected]
Modern cell biomechanics: A special issue on motility and dynamics of living cells in health, disease and healing
Journal of Biomechanics 49 (2016) 1271
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Biomechanics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbiomech www.JBiomech.com
Editorial
Modern cell biomechanics: A special issue on motility and dynamics of living cells in health, disease and healing
Cells, the basic living element in multicellular organisms, are now well known to be sensitive and responsive to the mechanics of their environment and mechanical loads that are locally generated by the body physiology. Cells are affected by the structure and stiffness of the extracellular environment, weight-bearing and gravity effects, cavity pressures and flow, and muscle contraction. Those induce loading regimes on cells at different body sites, which typically vary substantially across individuals. Specifically, loading varies with the body habitus, age, gender, underlying diseases, disorders and injuries, activity and lifestyle. Exposures to mechanical loads, when translated to an effect on single cells, may change cell structure, function, and viability, on short- and longtime scales. Those changes affect the tissue and organ functions, reflect back on systemic physiology, again changing the loading regimes that cells experience, and vice versa. The complex multiscale interactions in the body range from the molecular and subcellular, to single cells, to cell populations, to tissue and organ levels, and up to whole body physiology. However, understanding of the responses to mechanical loads and changing environments ultimately depends on identifying how individual cells adapt and function under loading. Cells are dynamic and adaptable, and change shape, for example, to move and migrate. Migration is a critical ability of cells that facilitates rapid response of tissue structures to altering environments, e.g. loading, and also enables repair of damage that has occurred when effects are instantaneous or chronic. Accordingly, it is important to determine how cells move, apply, and sense forces throughout the migration process, and to identify mechanisms that drive, hinder, control or otherwise affect cell mobility. The nature and extent of cell motility and dynamics are determined, for example, by the organization of the cytoskeleton and other cell organelles, the intracellular trafficking of signaling molecules, the ability of the cytoskeleton to dynamically respond and support or resist extracellular loads, and the contractility of cells, which are, in turn, influenced by the cell environment. Another fundamentally important factor is the direct interaction of the cells with their environment, including the extracellular matrix and the neighboring cells. Those interactions occur through
adhesion sites or tight junctions, and affect the transport and availability of energy, nutrients, and clearance of byproducts. The transfer of materials between cells and their environment directly relates to topics such as tissue perfusion and angiogenesis, effects of growth factors, and use of proteins and other molecular building blocks for cell maintenance, repair and tissue regeneration. Such complex processes require novel and creative experimental approaches and tools, for example utilizing contemporary methods such as 3-dimensional printing to facilitate rapid, cost-effective, and flexible device development. Experimental and in silico models are being used together and complementarily in modern biomechanics and mechanobiology research to systematically quantify these multi-factorial interactions at the different dimensional scales, also requiring close collaboration between experimentalists and theoreticians and mixed-approach types of work. This Special Issue in the Journal of Biomechanics contains the best and newest work on the wide range of topics mentioned above, from the top groups in cell biomechanics across the world, including laboratories from Europe, the USA and Asia. This collection of papers is a benchmark for where we are right now, and showcases the cutting-edge research on motility and dynamics of cells, while also exposing gaps in current knowledge regarding cell behavior, examined under the light of modern biomechanics.
Amit Gefen Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel E-mail address: [email protected] Daphne Weihs n Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel E-mail address: [email protected]
16 March 2016
n
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.03.025 0021-9290/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Corresponding author.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Biomechanics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbiomech www.JBiomech.com
Editorial
Modern cell biomechanics: A special issue on motility and dynamics of living cells in health, disease and healing
Cells, the basic living element in multicellular organisms, are now well known to be sensitive and responsive to the mechanics of their environment and mechanical loads that are locally generated by the body physiology. Cells are affected by the structure and stiffness of the extracellular environment, weight-bearing and gravity effects, cavity pressures and flow, and muscle contraction. Those induce loading regimes on cells at different body sites, which typically vary substantially across individuals. Specifically, loading varies with the body habitus, age, gender, underlying diseases, disorders and injuries, activity and lifestyle. Exposures to mechanical loads, when translated to an effect on single cells, may change cell structure, function, and viability, on short- and longtime scales. Those changes affect the tissue and organ functions, reflect back on systemic physiology, again changing the loading regimes that cells experience, and vice versa. The complex multiscale interactions in the body range from the molecular and subcellular, to single cells, to cell populations, to tissue and organ levels, and up to whole body physiology. However, understanding of the responses to mechanical loads and changing environments ultimately depends on identifying how individual cells adapt and function under loading. Cells are dynamic and adaptable, and change shape, for example, to move and migrate. Migration is a critical ability of cells that facilitates rapid response of tissue structures to altering environments, e.g. loading, and also enables repair of damage that has occurred when effects are instantaneous or chronic. Accordingly, it is important to determine how cells move, apply, and sense forces throughout the migration process, and to identify mechanisms that drive, hinder, control or otherwise affect cell mobility. The nature and extent of cell motility and dynamics are determined, for example, by the organization of the cytoskeleton and other cell organelles, the intracellular trafficking of signaling molecules, the ability of the cytoskeleton to dynamically respond and support or resist extracellular loads, and the contractility of cells, which are, in turn, influenced by the cell environment. Another fundamentally important factor is the direct interaction of the cells with their environment, including the extracellular matrix and the neighboring cells. Those interactions occur through
adhesion sites or tight junctions, and affect the transport and availability of energy, nutrients, and clearance of byproducts. The transfer of materials between cells and their environment directly relates to topics such as tissue perfusion and angiogenesis, effects of growth factors, and use of proteins and other molecular building blocks for cell maintenance, repair and tissue regeneration. Such complex processes require novel and creative experimental approaches and tools, for example utilizing contemporary methods such as 3-dimensional printing to facilitate rapid, cost-effective, and flexible device development. Experimental and in silico models are being used together and complementarily in modern biomechanics and mechanobiology research to systematically quantify these multi-factorial interactions at the different dimensional scales, also requiring close collaboration between experimentalists and theoreticians and mixed-approach types of work. This Special Issue in the Journal of Biomechanics contains the best and newest work on the wide range of topics mentioned above, from the top groups in cell biomechanics across the world, including laboratories from Europe, the USA and Asia. This collection of papers is a benchmark for where we are right now, and showcases the cutting-edge research on motility and dynamics of cells, while also exposing gaps in current knowledge regarding cell behavior, examined under the light of modern biomechanics.
Amit Gefen Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel E-mail address: [email protected] Daphne Weihs n Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel E-mail address: [email protected]
16 March 2016
n
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.03.025 0021-9290/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Corresponding author.