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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Introducing Shear Stress in the Study of Bacterial Adhesion
Published on: September 2, 2011
Shear stress-induced nuclear shrinkage through activation of Piezo1 channels in epithelial cells
Deekshitha Jetta1, Philip A Gottlieb2, Deepika Verma1
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
Abstract:
The cell nucleus responds to mechanical cues with changes in size, morphology and motility. Previous work has shown that external forces couple to nuclei through the cytoskeleton network, but we show here that changes in nuclear shape can be driven solely by calcium levels. Fluid shear stress applied to MDCK cells caused the nuclei to shrink through a Ca2+-dependent signaling pathway. Inhibiting mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels through treatment with GsMTx4 prevented nuclear shrinkage. Piezo1 knockdown also significantly reduced the nuclear shrinkage. Activation of Piezo1 with the agonist Yoda1 caused similar nucleus shrinkage in cells not exposed to shear stress. These results demonstrate that the Piezo1 channel is a key element for transmitting shear force input to nuclei. To ascertain the relative contribution of Ca2+ to cytoskeleton perturbation, we examined F-actin reorganization under shear stress and static conditions, and showed that reorganization of the cytoskeleton is not necessary for nuclear shrinkage. These results emphasize the role of the mechanosensitive channels as primary transducers in force transmission to the nucleus.
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