RhoA goes GLOBAL

Abstract

Mechanical forces influence nearly all aspects of biology. Cells are equipped with numerous mechanosensitive proteins that activate various signaling cascades in response to mechanical cues from their environment. Much interest lies in understanding how cells respond to external stresses. A number of studies have highlighted the coordination of mechanical and chemical signaling cascades downstream of integrins. In recent years, the study of mechanotransduction has expanded to other mechanosensitive adhesion receptors, such as platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1). This commentary will highlight our current understanding of integrin and PECAM-1-mediated mechanotransduction and expand on the observation that a localized mechanical stress can elicit a global mechanosignaling response.

Keywords: :

• mechanotransduction
• force
• cytoskeleton
• focal adhesion
• RhoA
• integrin
• PECAM-1

This article refers to:

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIH grant HL088632 (to E.T.). C.C. is an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow (12PRE119300000) and E.T. is an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar.