Abstract
From embryonic development, postnatal growth and adult homeostasis to reparative and disease states, cells and tissues undergo constant changes in genome activity, cell fate, proliferation, movement, metabolism and growth. Importantly, these biological state transitions are coupled to changes in the mechanical and material properties of cells and tissues, termed mechanical state transitions. These mechanical states share features with physical states of matter, liquids and solids. Tissues can switch between mechanical states by changing behavioural dynamics or connectivity between cells. Conversely, these changes in tissue mechanical properties are known to control cell and tissue function, most importantly the ability of cells to move or tissues to deform. Thus, tissue mechanical state transitions are implicated in transmitting information across biological length and time scales, especially during processes of early development, wound healing and diseases such as cancer. This Review will focus on the biological basis of tissue-scale mechanical state transitions, how they emerge from molecular and cellular interactions, and their roles in organismal development, homeostasis, regeneration and disease.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Romain Levayer, Rashmi Priya and Yekaterina Miroshnikova for providing thoughtful advice on the manuscript. They apologize to colleagues whose work they have inadvertently failed to cite. Y.M. was supported by a Medical Research Council award MR/W027437/1, a Lister Institute Research Prize and EMBO Young Investigator Programme, and would like to thank Lin Jing Ying Lin Quan for discussions prior to writing this manuscript. The Wickström lab is supported by the Academy of Finland and Max Planck Society.
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Glossary
- Blastocyst
-
A fluid-filled sphere of cells that forms during the first 5–9 days of mammalian embryonic development and generates all embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues.
- Blastoderm
-
The single layer of embryonic epithelial tissue that makes up the blastula, the early embryonic stage characterized by a hollow, spherical structure, with a fluid-filled cavity called the blastocoel.
- Cell extrusion
-
This term describes the controlled elimination or removal of cells from an epithelium while maintaining epithelial barrier integrity.
- Cortical tension
-
This describes the sustained contraction of the cortical cytoskeleton. It is largely but not exclusively based on actomyosin contraction and depends on the density of the cortex as well as on its structure and composition.
- Emergent properties
-
New property or behaviour of a system that results from the combination of or interaction between two or more different components or processes, none of which displayed the behaviour individually.
- Friction
-
A force that resists motion when the surface of one object (such as a cell) comes into contact with the surface of another object (for example, a cell or extracellular matrix). In cells, this force is typically generated by adhesion molecules.
- Interfacial tension
-
The tension at the boundary between two objects such as a junctional interface between two cells.
- Presomitic mesoderm
-
This is a region of the embryo also known as paraxial or somitic mesoderm that flanks the neural tube and gives rise to somites.
- Shear stress
-
A stress that is applied parallel or tangential to the surface of a material, as opposed to stress that is applied perpendicularly.
- Tensile forces
-
A force that has two components — tensile stress and tensile strain — that act on a material to stretch it while it is under tension.
- Ventral furrow
-
This is an invagination generated by the first large-scale morphogenetic movement in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo, where the morphogenetic movement transforms a single layer of columnar epithelial cells into a multi-layered structure by triggering internalization of the most ventrally positioned cells of the embryonic epithelium.
- Vertex models
-
A type of statistical mechanics model used to model the behaviour of adherent cell collectives, mostly epithelia. In vertex models, cell shape is represented by a set of vertices that mark the common point of three or more neighbouring cells and on which forces from within cells and in between cells act. These models can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional.
- Wetting force
-
An adhesive force between a liquid and a solid, resulting from intermolecular interactions between the two and keeping the surfaces of both materials in contact with each other.
- Yield strength
-
The stress at which a material ceases elastic deformation and undergoes plastic, permanent deformation.
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Mao, Y., Wickström, S.A. Mechanical state transitions in the regulation of tissue form and function. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 25, 654–670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00719-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00719-x
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