Integrins in Mechanotransduction

Mechanical forces are crucial to the regulation of which then induce the formation of lamellipodia and filopodia, cell and tissue morphology and function. At the cellurespectively, and progression of early adhesions into FC (14). Tranlar level, forces influence cytoskeletal organization, sition from early adhesions to FC is marked by the recruitment of gene expression, proliferation, and survival. Integrin- paxillin, phosphoproteins, and vinculin (12, 15). Vinculin levels mediated adhesions are intrinsically mechanosensi within adhesions correlate linearly with tractional force (16). FC tive and a large body of data implicates integrins in sensing mechanical forces. We review the relationship between integrins and mechanical forces, the role of inte- grins in cellular responses to stretch and fluid flow, and propose that some of these events are mechanistically related.