Study on the switching mechanism of structural and tensional memory of cells

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19890
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 90:Biomedical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: Nagayama Kazuaki 茨城大学, 理工学研究科(工学野), 教授 (10359763)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞バイオメカニクス / メカノバイオロジー / 細胞骨格 / 細胞形態 / 恒常性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the mechanism of a structural and tensional memory of cells with consideration for cell aging. We used vascular smooth muscle cells and found that cell aging increased cell projected area while it reduced intracellular tension and migration ability. We further found that tensional memory of actin stress fibers in vascular smooth muscle cells tended to decrease with cell aging. These results indicate that cell aging not only affects cell morphology and biochemical functions but also mechanical properties of cells involving in cellular mechanotransduction.

Free Research Field

細胞バイオメカニクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では，細胞の脱分化・老化が進むと細胞張力の減少と運動能の低下が見られること，個々のアクチン細胞骨格の再生能力は高まるが，張力の大きさは元に戻りにくくなることを明らかにした．さらに，細胞が自身の力学構造の再現と崩壊を巧みに切り換える機能を持っており，その機能は細胞老化と密接に関わることが示唆された．本研究は，このような1つ1つの細胞に備わる「構造と力の再現能力」が，様々な外乱に対する組織全体の恒常性を維持する重要因子となっている可能性を世界で初めて得た研究であり，得られた知見は，疾患や創傷の早期治療手法の開発などへの応用展開が期待できる．