Journal
AGEING RESEARCH REVIEWS
Volume 63, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2020.101150
Keywords
Cardiac fibroblast; Myofibroblast; Mechanosensing; Aging
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Aging [AG059599]
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The myofibroblast is a specialized fibroblast that expresses alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) and participates in wound contraction and fibrosis. The fibroblast to myofibroblast transition depends on chemical and mechanical signals. A fibroblast senses the changes in the environment (extracellular matrix (ECM)) and transduces these changes to the cytoskeleton and the nucleus, resulting in activation or inhibition of alpha-SMA transcription in a process called mechanosensing. A stiff matrix greatly facilitates the transition from fibroblast to myofibroblast, and although the aging heart is much stiffer than the young one, the aging fibroblast has difficulties in transitioning into the contractile phenotype. This suggests that the events occurring downstream of the matrix, such as activation or changes in expression levels of various proteins participating in mechanotransduction can negatively alter the ability of the aging fibroblast to become a myofibroblast. In this review, we will discuss in detail the changes in ECM, receptors (integrin or non-integrin), focal adhesions, cytoskeleton, and transcription factors involved in mechanosensing that occur with aging.
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