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Mechano-crosstalk between living and artificial cells
Xiaolei Yu1, Vincent Mukwaya1, Li Wang2
1State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, P. R. China.
Nature Communications
|September 29, 2025
Summary
Researchers created artificial pathogen cells to study how cells respond to mechanical signals. Stiffer artificial cells triggered a stronger inflammatory response in macrophages, revealing a key mechano-transduction pathway.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
- Immunology
Background:
- Cellular responses to mechanical signals from the microenvironment are crucial for cell behavior.
- Understanding cell-cell mechanical interactions, or mechano-crosstalk, is vital for biological processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mechanisms of mechano-crosstalk between macrophages and model protocells.
- To explore how cell-presented mechanical signals influence macrophage behavior and inflammatory responses.
Main Methods:
- Construction of model artificial pathogen cells with tunable rigidity, mimicking natural cell architecture.
- Incubation of artificial cells with macrophages to observe cellular interactions.
- Analysis of macrophage probing mechanisms, pseudopodia extension, and inflammatory polarization.
Main Results:
- Macrophages utilize distinct pseudopodia to probe mechanical signals from artificial cells.
- Increased rigidity of artificial pathogen cells enhanced macrophage proinflammatory polarization.
- This enhancement involved promoting mechanosensitive molecular clutch docking, actin assembly, and pseudopodia extension.
Conclusions:
- A mechano-transduction axis links artificial cell rigidity, macrophage pseudopodia, and inflammatory response.
- Model protocells offer a novel platform for dissecting cell-presented mechanical signals in cell-cell interactions.
- Cellular mechanical properties significantly govern protocell-living cell mechano-crosstalk.
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