Caveolin在拉伸造成的Focal Adhesion消長中的角色

Abstract

在運動狀態下肌肉及韌帶等組織會受到力學刺激，這些刺激能夠促使組織中的細胞增長、分化或改變其行為。經由生物反應器施加各種力學刺激，我們可以觀察到細胞focal adhesion的消長，其中由caveolin所組成的微結構caveolae似乎扮演了重要的角色。前人研究指出細胞遷移的過程中，caveolae參與了focal adhesion的重組。另一方面，剪應力所調控的細胞骨架排列也和caveolin有關。然而拉伸刺激造成的focal adhesion重組，是否亦由caveolae來掌控，未曾有詳細的探討。在本研究中，我們透過單軸向的力學刺激及抑制caveolae的形成，試圖找尋拉伸刺激下caveolae在focal adhesion消長中扮演的角色。結果指出Caveolae受到拉伸釋放出Src，進而影響細胞focal adhesion的大小及數量，可能是拉伸造成focal adhesion消長的原因之一。

When exercising, our muscles and ligaments will be subjected to mechanical stimulation. These stimuli can promote cell proliferation, differentiation or even change their behavior. Using bioreactors, we can observe changes in focal adhesion dynamics upon mechanical loading. Caveolae, a membrane microdomain composed of caveolin, may play an important role in the regulation of focal adhesion dynamics. Previous studies have shown that caveolae are involved in the reorganization of focal adhesion during cell migration. On the other hand, the shear stress-induced cytoskeletal rearrangement is also related to caveolin. However, whether the stretch-induced focal adhesion reorganization is also controlled by caveolae has not been explored in detail. In this study, we tried to find out the role of caveolae under mechanical loading by uniaxial stretch and inhibiting the function of caveolae. Results indicated that stretching released Src from caveolae, which affect the size and number of focal adhesions, may be one of the regulators of focal adhesion dynamics upon mechanical loading.