"Cytoskeletal prestress is the cellular hallmark in mechanobiology and mechanomedicine"
Increasing evidence demonstrates that mechanical forces, in addition to soluble molecules, impact cell and tissue functions in physiology and diseases. How living cells integrate mechanical signals to perform appropriate biological functions is an area of intense investigation. Here we present evidence from our lab the central role of myosin-II dependent cytoskeletal prestress in mechanotransduction and mechanobiology. Elevating cytoskeletal prestress increases cell stiffness and reinforces stress concentration, facilitates long-range cytoplasmic mechanotransduction via integrins, enables direct chromatin stretching and rapid gene expression, and spurs stem cell differentiation, whereas lowering cytoskeletal prestress maintains embryonic stem cell pluripotency and promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis of stem cell-like malignant tumor-repopulating cells. The overwhelming evidence from our lab and other labs suggests that the cytoskeletal prestress is the governing principle and the cellular hallmark in mechanobiology. Mechanomedicine, mechanobiology-based medicine, is rapidly emerging and may help advance human health and substantially improve diagnostics, treatment, and therapeutics of diseases.
