Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9026
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Funding
- ETH Zurich
- Nanomedicine Center for Mechanobiology Directing the Immune Response (National Institutes of Health) [PN2 EY016586]
- European Research Council [233157]
- Volkswagen Stiftung
- Human Frontier Science Program Organization
- NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE [PN2EY016586] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
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Despite the crucial role of extracellular matrix (ECM) in directing cell fate in healthy and diseased tissues-particularly in development, wound healing, tissue regeneration and cancer-the mechanisms that direct the assembly and regulate hierarchical architectures of ECM are poorly understood. Collagen I matrix assembly in vivo requires active fibronectin (Fn) fibrillogenesis by cells. Here we exploit Fn-FRET probes as mechanical strain sensors and demonstrate that collagen I fibres preferentially co-localize with more-relaxed Fn fibrils in the ECM of fibroblasts in cell culture. Fibre stretch-assay studies reveal that collagen I's Fn-binding domain is responsible for the mechano-regulated interaction. Furthermore, we show that Fn-collagen interactions are reciprocal: relaxed Fn fibrils act as multivalent templates for collagen assembly, but once assembled, collagen fibres shield Fn fibres from being stretched by cellular traction forces. Thus, in addition to the well-recognized, force-regulated, cell-matrix interactions, forces also tune the interactions between different structural ECM components.
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