The mechanical linkage between the extracellular microenvironment and the intracellular organization of the cell is known to mediate both health and disease. The importance of direct interaction forces between the two domains separated by a vague, bilipid interface has been a relatively recent but recurrent theme. Concurrent with the increased range and sensitivity of key mechanical measurements - such as force, shape, deformation, and constitutive parameters - a remarkable body of work modeling these mechanical interactions (computationally) or manipulating them (via new biomaterials) has developed over the last few decades.
In this Research Topic, we endeavor to catalog a wide range of state-of-the-art assays and related models that examine the mechanical coupling between the cell and its microenvironment. We focus on the nature of temporal regulation of forces involved with mechanical communication between the extracellular microenvironment and cell organelles. Since spatiotemporal mechanical heterogeneity is a common theme in the progression of most human diseases, we aim to compile studies that investigate cell-scale variation in biomechanical communication between cells and the stroma.
We invite Original Research, Brief Research Reports, and Methods, as well as Review and Mini-Review articles describing novel measurements, materials, and models that highlight the nuances of cell-stroma mechanics (such as cell adhesion, migration, differentiation, and proliferation). Submissions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following subtopics:
• Cellular phenotype and biophysical heterogeneity of the extracellular microenvironment
• Development of new biophysical approaches to study cell mechanics
• Molecular complexes relevant to cell-stroma mechanics
• Measurement of migratory and proliferative features of multicellular systems using machine-learning tools
• Multicellular dynamics of cellular forces that mediate aggregation, migration, and proliferation
• Molecular interventions and models that highlight the relevance of macromolecules in cell mechanics.
Since we focus on biomechanical aspects of cell-stroma interactions, studies reporting/reviewing biochemical signaling pathways independent of their biomechanical relevance to cell-stroma mechanics will be discouraged.
Descriptive studies consisting solely of bioinformatic investigation of publicly available genomic/transcriptomic/proteomic data do not fall within the scope of the section unless they are expanded and provide significant biological or mechanistic insight into the process being studied.
More information on article types accepted by the journal can be found
here.
