Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Apr 6;5(2):17.
doi: 10.3390/cells5020017.

The Regulation of Cellular Responses to Mechanical Cues by Rho GTPases

Jing Ling Hoon  1 , Mei Hua Tan  2 , Cheng-Gee Koh  3   4
Affiliations
Review

The Regulation of Cellular Responses to Mechanical Cues by Rho GTPases

Jing Ling Hoon et al. Cells. .

Abstract

The Rho GTPases regulate many cellular signaling cascades that modulate cell motility, migration, morphology and cell division. A large body of work has now delineated the biochemical cues and pathways, which stimulate the GTPases and their downstream effectors. However, cells also respond exquisitely to biophysical and mechanical cues such as stiffness and topography of the extracellular matrix that profoundly influence cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. As these cellular responses are mediated by the actin cytoskeleton, an involvement of Rho GTPases in the transduction of such cues is not unexpected. In this review, we discuss an emerging role of Rho GTPase proteins in the regulation of the responses elicited by biophysical and mechanical stimuli.

Keywords: Rho GTPases; actin cytoskeleton; biophysical cues; cell migration; matrix stiffness; mechanical cues; proliferation and differentiation; topography.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanical signals regulate cell signaling to give rise to different cellular responses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sit S.T., Manser E. Rho gtpases and their role in organizing the actin cytoskeleton. J. Cell. Sci. 2011;124:679–683. doi: 10.1242/jcs.064964. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heasman S.J., Ridley A.J. Mammalian rho gtpases: New insights into their functions from in vivo studies. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2008;9:690–701. doi: 10.1038/nrm2476. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Koh C.G. Rho gtpases and their regulators in neuronal functions and development. Neurosignals. 2006;15:228–237. doi: 10.1159/000101527. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heng Y.W., Koh C.G. Actin cytoskeleton dynamics and the cell division cycle. Int. J. Biochem. Cell. Biol. 2010;42:1622–1633. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2010.04.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Etienne-Manneville S., Hall A. Rho gtpases in cell biology. Nature. 2002;420:629–635. doi: 10.1038/nature01148. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources