A multi-scale approach to understand the mechanobiology of intermediate filaments

Zhao Qin, Markus J. Buehler, Laurent Kreplak

Producción científica: Contribución a una revistaArtículorevisión exhaustiva

52 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

The animal cell cytoskeleton consists of three interconnected filament systems: actin microfilaments, microtubules and the lesser known intermediate filaments (IFs). All mature IF proteins share a common tripartite domain structure and the ability to assemble into 8-12 nm wide filaments. At the time of their discovery in the 1980s, IFs were only considered as passive elements of the cytoskeleton mainly involved in maintaining the mechanical integrity of tissues. Since then, our knowledge of IFs structure, assembly plan and functions has improved dramatically. Especially, single IFs show a unique combination of extensibility, flexibility and toughness that is a direct consequence of their unique assembly plan. In this review we will first discuss the mechanical design of IFs by combining the experimental data with recent multi-scale modeling results. Then we will discuss how mechanical forces may interact with IFs in vivo both directly and through the activation of other proteins such as kinases.

Idioma originalEnglish
Páginas (desde-hasta)15-22
Número de páginas8
PublicaciónJournal of Biomechanics
Volumen43
N.º1
DOI
EstadoPublished - ene. 5 2010

Nota bibliográfica

Funding Information:
This work has been supported by a grant from NSERC awarded to LK. ZQ and MJB acknowledge support by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-08-1-0321) and partial support from the National Science Foundation (MRSEC DMR-081976).

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Biophysics
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
  • Rehabilitation

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