Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Cell-matrix's Response to Mechanical Forces

Cell-matrix's Response to Mechanical Forces

In animal cells, the extracellular matrix allows cells within tissues to withstand external stresses and transmits signals from the outside of the cell to the inside. The extracellular matrix is extensive, and its composition varies between different types of tissues. For example, the reticular fibers and ground substance make up the ECM in loose connective tissue, while collagen and bone minerals make up the ECM of bone tissue.
Anchoring junctions mechanically attach a cell to the...

Tension Response at Adherens Junctions

Tension Response at Adherens Junctions

The adherens junctions that anchor cells together are multi-protein complexes that dynamically adapt to mechanical stimuli such as tensile forces and shear stress. Mechanosensory proteins in these junctions can sense such mechanical stimuli and undergo a shift in their conformation, resulting in an altered function — a process called mechanotransduction.
α-Catenin as a Mechanosensory Protein
The α-catenin of adherens junctions is an allosteric protein with three VH (vinculin...

Mechanical Protein Functions

Mechanical Protein Functions

Proteins perform many mechanical functions in a cell. These proteins can be classified into two general categories- proteins that generate mechanical forces and proteins that are subjected to mechanical forces. Proteins providing mechanical support to the structure of the cell, such as keratin, are subjected to mechanical force, whereas proteins involved in cell movement and transport of molecules across cell membranes, such as an ion pump, are examples of generating mechanical force.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Photoinduced morphological transformation in azobenzene-cored hybrid peptides.

Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)·2026

Same author

Reversible DNA translocation as a molecular caliper to probe the nanoscale asymmetry of glass nanopores.

Nanoscale·2025

Same author

<i>p</i>-Cymene-Ru(II)-organometallic conjugates based on 'V-shaped' 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide Tröger's base scaffolds: synthesis, photophysics, bioimaging, and BSA/HSA binding studies.

Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)·2025

Same author

Kinetics of Nisin-Induced Pore Formation in Giant Unilamellar Vesicles.

Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids·2023

Same author

Nanopore Sensing of DNA-Histone Complexes on Nucleosome Arrays.

ACS sensors·2022

Same author

Customized low-cost high-throughput amplifier for electro-fluidic detection of cell volume changes in point-of-care applications.

PloS one·2022

Same journal

Nanopore sequencing with proteins: synchronization and dischronization of molecular dynamics simulations with laboratory and industrial developments.

Soft matter·2026

Same journal

Catanionics from biosurfactants and regular surfactants: miscibility and structure.

Soft matter·2026

Same journal

Adhesives with a thickness smaller than the fractocohesive length enhance adhesion.

Soft matter·2026

Same journal

Non-equilibrium phase transitions in hybrid Voronoi models of cell colonies.

Soft matter·2026

Same journal

Effects of methoxy substituents on self-assembly and gelation performance of benzamide-based organogelators.

Soft matter·2026

Same journal

Rheology of <i>Escherichia coli</i> suspensions with various bacterial morphologies and motion characteristics.

Soft matter·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 8, 2026

Single Cell Durotaxis Assay for Assessing Mechanical Control of Cellular Movement and Related Signaling Events

Single Cell Durotaxis Assay for Assessing Mechanical Control of Cellular Movement and Related Signaling Events

Published on: August 27, 2019

Cellular mechanosensing on a cell-scale stiffness gradient substrate.

Indrajit Bhattacharjee¹, Gautam V Soni², Bibhu Ranjan Sarangi^1,3

¹Physical and Chemical Biology Laboratory, Dept of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad, Palakkad, 678623, Kerala, India. 222014001@smail.iitpkd.ac.in.

|December 17, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Cells sense mechanical cues, migrating along stiffness gradients. High substrate rigidity reduces cell sensitivity to these gradients, impacting nuclear positioning and cell shape.

More Related Videos

A Simplified System for Evaluating Cell Mechanosensing and Durotaxis In Vitro

A Simplified System for Evaluating Cell Mechanosensing and Durotaxis In Vitro

Published on: August 27, 2015

Micropipette Aspiration of Substrate-attached Cells to Estimate Cell Stiffness

Micropipette Aspiration of Substrate-attached Cells to Estimate Cell Stiffness

Published on: September 27, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 8, 2026

Single Cell Durotaxis Assay for Assessing Mechanical Control of Cellular Movement and Related Signaling Events

Single Cell Durotaxis Assay for Assessing Mechanical Control of Cellular Movement and Related Signaling Events

Published on: August 27, 2019

A Simplified System for Evaluating Cell Mechanosensing and Durotaxis In Vitro

A Simplified System for Evaluating Cell Mechanosensing and Durotaxis In Vitro

Published on: August 27, 2015

Micropipette Aspiration of Substrate-attached Cells to Estimate Cell Stiffness

Micropipette Aspiration of Substrate-attached Cells to Estimate Cell Stiffness

Published on: September 27, 2012

Area of Science:

Cell Biology
Biophysics
Materials Science

Background:

Cells exhibit mechanosensing, responding to mechanical cues like extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness.
Mechanosensing influences directed cell migration and various biological processes.
Investigating cellular responses to stiffness gradients requires specialized substrates.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a method for fabricating cell-scale substrates with tunable stiffness gradients.
To investigate fibroblast cell behavior, including nuclear positioning and alignment, on these substrates.
To understand how cells respond to varying stiffness gradients and substrate rigidity.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of substrates with periodically varying stiffness profiles at the cellular scale.
Utilizing fibroblast cells to assess responses to continuous, anisotropic stiffness variations.
Analyzing nuclear positioning and cell alignment relative to stiffness gradients.

Main Results:

Fibroblast cells preferentially position nuclei in stiffer substrate regions.
Cells align along the direction of the lowest rigidity gradient.
High substrate rigidity diminishes cell sensitivity to stiffness gradients, affecting elongation and nuclear positioning.

Conclusions:

A novel method enables the creation of cell-scale stiffness gradients for mechanosensing studies.
Cell-scale stiffness gradients drive significant positional and orientational order in cells.
Substrate rigidity modulates cellular response to stiffness gradients, revealing insights into mechanosensing.