Zhou Jing's team reveals a new mechanism by which vascular smooth muscle cells sense, transduce and respond to extracellular matrix stiffness

? ? ? On January 14, 2022, Zhou Jing's research group from Peking University School of Basic Medicine published a study titled "Matrix stiffness exacerbates the proinflammatory responses of vascular smooth muscle cell through the DDR1-DNMT1 mechanotransduction axis" online in Bioactive Materials thesis

Schematic diagram of the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell function mediated by the DDR1-DNMT1 mechanical signal transduction pathway

? ? ? Vascular smooth muscle cells are highly plastic, and their phenotype can change in response to a variety of microenvironmental stimuli

? ? ? In the previous work of the research group (Biomaterials, 2018), polyacrylamide hydrogels were used to simulate the microenvironment of extracellular matrix with different stiffness in vitro, and it was found that high matrix stiffness caused DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) ), but its mechanism of action is unclear, especially how high matrix stiffness is sensed by smooth muscle cells and causes downregulation of DNMT1

? ? ? Zhou Jing's group is committed to the development and application of a series of in vivo and ex vivo model systems that simulate different extracellular physical microenvironments (such as blood flow shear and mechanical stretch, matrix stiffness and topology, etc.

Original link: https:// University School of Basic Medicine)