The delivery of molecules and genes to the central nervous system (CNS) poses a major challenge for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. CNS disorders require long-term intervention and the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) restricts the pe ...
Interstitial flow is an important biophysical cue that can affect capillary morphogenesis, tumor cell migration, and fibroblast remodeling of the extracellular matrix, among others. Current models that incorporate interstitial flow and that are suitable fo ...
During cell migration, forces generated by the actin cytoskeleton are transmitted through adhesion complexes to the substrate. To investigate the mechanism of force generation and transmission, we analyzed the relationship between actin network velocity an ...
Stem cell use in bladder tissue engineering is a recently addressed area of investigation that has generated excitement as a novel way to restore and regenerate lost or damaged urinary bladder tissue. The remodelling of smooth muscle plays a significant ro ...
Muscular arteries are able to actively modify their diameter by modulating the tone of the smooth muscle cells located within the arterial wall. A small variation of lumen diameter has a large influence on blood flow as well as on arterial pressure. The ca ...
After organ injury, a complex sequence of events is triggered to heal the tissue and to form a scar. Myofibroblasts, specialized contractile and secretory fibroblasts, are one of the many cell types that participate in the remodeling process. Myofibroblast ...
Recent studies implicate Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in lens differentiation (Stump, R. J., et al., 2003. A role for Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in lens epithelial differentiation. Dev Biol;259:48-61). Beta-catenin is a component of adherens junctions and fu ...
Dynamic actin network at the leading edge of the cell is linked to the extracellular matrix through focal adhesions (FAs), and at the same time it undergoes retrograde flow with different dynamics in two distinct zones: the lamellipodium (peripheral zone o ...
Muscular arteries possess the ability to control actively their lumen by altering the tone of the smooth muscle cells of the arterial wall, a property which is vital for a large number of the hemodynamical functions of the body. Arterial contraction is due ...
Stretch-elicited intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)) changes in individual smooth muscle cells in a ring of aorta were measured simultaneously with the force developed by the ring. A phasic increase in Ca(2+) was observed in 30% of the cells and a sus ...
