DEPARTAMENTO DE CIÊNCIAS DA VIDA ... - Estudo Geral

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I.2.3 - Mechanotransduction and Stem Cells
I.2.3.1 - Mechanotransduction and MSCs differentiation
Living tissues are known to possess different physiologic characteristics
according to their function and cellular type, so considering the elasticity of solid
tissues, very different values of elasticity can be found as shown in Figure 4. The solid
tissues exhibit a range of stiffness, as measured by the elastic modulus, E (Engler et al.,
2006).
Figure 4 – Tissue Elasticity. Range of stiffness measured by the elastic modulus, E, of some human
solid tissues. Adapted from Engler et al., 2006.
Mesenchymal stem cells will differentiate into different phenotypes as a
function of substrate stiffness. The lineage they can differentiate into when cultured
on a substrate with a certain range of stiffness has phenotypic features similar to cells
found in the solid tissues with the same range of stiffness (Figure 4), and MSCs appear
to do so in a way that would promote tissue-specific differentiation and healing (Engler
et al., 2006). For example, on brain-tissue-like stiffness cells undergo neuronal-like
differentiation, whereas muscle-equivalent stiffness promotes myogenesis (Figure 5)
(Engler et al., 2006).