title: The effect of mechanical strain on soft (cardiovascular) and hard (bone) tissues: common pathways for different biological outcomes.
abstract: Mechanical stress plays a pivotal role in developing and maintaining tissues functionalities. Cells are constantly subjected to strain and compressive forces that are sensed by specialized membrane mechanosensors and converted in biochemical signals able to differently influence cellular behavior in terms of surviving, differentiation and extracellular matrix remodeling. This review focuses on the effects of mechanical strain on soft and hard tissues. Unexpectedly, different cells share almost the same membrane mechanosensors and the relative intracellular pathways, but to ultimately obtain very different biological effects. The events occurring in cardiovascular and bone tissues are treated in details, showing that integrins, cadherins, growth factor receptors and ions channels specifically expressed in the different tissues are the major actors of the sight. However, MAPkinases and RhoGTPases are mainly involved in the biochemical intracellular signaling directed to nuclear modifications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale A. Avogadro, Novara, Italy. francesca.boccafoschi@med.unipmn.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boccafoschi
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mosca
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramella
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cannas
mesh_terms: D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000378:metabolism*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism*; D002450:Cell Communication; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006321:Heart; D006801:Humans; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D010011:Osteocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins
keywords: bone; cardiac tissue; hard tissue; mechanical strain; mechanotransduction; soft tissues; vascular tissue