Mechanotransduction has a crucial role for migration, adhesion, invasion, metastasis, angiogenesis and calcification, since it deals with the response of cells to physical forces such as shear stress, osmotic stress, substrate stiffness, and stretch. Signaling pathways such as autophagy, metabolism and exosomes are important to understand how physical cues transduce into cellular machinery to affect healthy and abnormal cells.

This topic focuses on the frontiers in cellular mechanics and the advances in cellular mechanism associated with physiological and pathological conditions.

We welcome biologists, physicists, and medical researchers to contribute original articles and reviews to this issue.

Keywords

Mechanobiology, Cellular Metabolism, Epigenetics, Stem Cell, Vascular, Bone, Cancer

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ARTICLE

In vitro study of emodin-induced nephrotoxicity in human renal glomerular endothelial cells on a microfluidic chip
ZHUO YANG, WEN QIN, DI CHEN, JUNSHENG HUO, JINGBO WANG, LIYUAN WANG, QIN ZHUO, JIYONG YIN
BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.1, pp. 125-131, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.022937
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Emodin is an effective component of rhubarb with positive pharmacological effects on human health. However, it is also toxic to different cells or tissues to varying degrees. The effects of emodin on glomerular endothelial cells (GECs) remain to be tested, and the documented works were always performed in vitro and hardly reflect the real physiological situation. To study the effects of emodin on GECs in a biomimetic environment, we utilized a microfluidic chip to assess the physiological reaction of human renal glomerular endothelial cells to various concentrations of emodin in this work. The results showed that emodin caused cytotoxicity, impaired… More >

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KIF18A is a potential prognostic factor and promotes tumor progression in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma
XIAOFEI LV, XI YU, JIE XU, MINGYI WANG, CHENG PENG
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1189-1196, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018249
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract The kinesin family member 18A protein was dysregulated in several human cancers and involved in cancer progression. However, the significance in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) has not been studied. The present study was intended to explore the functions of KIF18A in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay was performed to assess the relationships between the KIF18A protein expression level and clinical-pathological features of the patients. The biological functions of KIF18A in OTSCC cells were investigated by the experiments in vitro and in vivo. Based on immunohistochemistry, we found that KIF18A was correlated with the clinical-pathological… More >

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Use of Impella cardiac axial flow pump for cardiogenic shock (A newer alternative)–How good is the evidence?
RAFIQ AHMED BHAT, SYED MANZOOR ALI, YOOSUF ALI ASHRAF MUHAMMAD HUSSENBOCUS, AKANKSHA RATHI, JAVAID AKHTER BHAT, ABDUL ALEEM KHAN, SYED MAQBOOL, RAJA SAQIB IQBAL, MD MONOWARUL ISLAM, YONGSHENG QU, YOU ZHANG, YUXIAO SUN, WENTAO XIAO, ABHISHEK TIBREWAL, CHUANYU GAO
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1139-1150, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016833
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract The adverse outcomes of a ventricular heart failure (left, right or biventricular) caused by cardiogenic shock are aggravated by lung oedema and organ mal perfusion. Despite advances in medical sciences, revascularisation and mechanical hemodynamic support have proved ineffective in reducing the mortality rate in such patients. A thorough study of the data available about cardio-vascular diseases reveals that the application of conventional methods of treatment are least helpful to practically restore normal functions of heart when it experiences end-stage systolic ventricular failure. Thus, to overcome the challenges and find alternatives to address this issue, percutaneous ventricular support devices/machines were designed… More >

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Human β-defensin 2 enhances IL-1β production and pyroptosis through P2X7-mediated NLRP3 expression in macrophages
PANPAN WANG, GANG LI, LI GAO, CHUANJIANG ZHAO
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1197-1207, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016607
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Periodontal disease is the leading cause of tooth loss, which is also a high-risk factor for other diseases including oral cancer and cardiovascular disease. Periodontitis is one of the most common type of periodontal diseases. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. However, the mechanism how IL-1β is produced during periodontitis is still unclear. In the present study, we found that human β-defensin 2 (hBD2) enhances IL-1β production through an LPS-primed human acute monocytic leukemia (THP-1) macrophage model. Inhibition of P2X purinoceptor 7 (P2X7) reduced hBD2-enhanced IL-1β production. Incubation of LPS-primed THP-1 macrophages with potassium chloride… More >

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Dihydropyrimidinase like 3 as a novel target of wild type p53 suppresses MAPK pathway in response to hypoxia
YUANNA DU, WENWEN GONG, JING LIANG, RUKUN ZANG, JUNJUN MOU
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1181-1188, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016148
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Endometrial cancer remains to be a major type of malignancy in threatening female life. Molecular insights in advancing our understanding of endometrial tumorigenesis are much needed. We here report that a less-studied protein Dihydropyrimidinase like 3 (DPYSL3) is a potent tumor suppressor. DPYSL3 is uniquely regulated by wild type p53 (wtp53), and its expression is at the highest level when cells carry wtp53 and are exposed to hypoxia. We reveal that wtp53 can bind DPYSL3 promoter to enhance DPYSL3 expression and in turn, the elevated DPYSL3 can restrain cancer cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, we… More >

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Toward an optimized strategy of using various airway mucus clearance techniques to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients
MINGZHI LUO, KAI NI, YAN SUN, JIA GUO, KANG WEN, LINHONG DENG
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 855-871, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017520
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is still threatening the human life and society throughout the world. For those critically ill patients, mechanical ventilation (MV) is essential to provide life support during treatment. However, both the virus infection and MV disrupt the balance between secretion and elimination of airway mucus and lead to mucus accumulation in the lung. Postmortem examination verified that the lungs in patients died of COVID-19 are indeed filled with sticky mucus, suggesting a great need to improve airway mucus clearance in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it may be helpful… More >

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DTL facilitates the Fanconi anemia pathway for ultraviolet-induced DNA repair in retinal pigment epithelial cells
JIUCHUN GUO, JIE PAN, QIANQIAN GUO
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.2, pp. 505-510, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015785
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract The excessive energy of light, especially the invisible rays with lower wavelength, is basically absorbed by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and usually causes DNA damage. The molecular mechanism behind DNA damage repair response to this frequent stress in RPE is not clearly understood. In this study, we determined that the Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway was activated in human RPE ARPE-19 cells after ultraviolet (UV) B and C treatment. Moreover, immunoprecipitation (IP) of FANCD2 indicated that denticleless E3 ubiquitin protein ligase homolog (DTL) closely interacted with FANCD2. Knockdown of DTL weakened the activity of the FA pathway in ARPE-19 cells responding… More >

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Hyperbaric oxygen protects against PC12 and H9C2 cell damage caused by oxygen–glucose deprivation/reperfusion via the inhibition of cell apoptosis and autophagy
JIANRONG YANG, WAN CHEN, XING ZHOU, YAOXUAN LI, ZHIHUANG NONG, LIYUAN ZHOU, XUAN WEI, XIAORONG PAN, CHUNXIA CHEN, WENSHENG LU
BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 137-148, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016807
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract In this study, we investigated the protective effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on PC12 and H9C2 cell damage caused by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion and its possible mechanism. PC12 and H9C2 cell oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion model were established. Cells were divided into a control group, model group, hyperbaric air (HBA) group and HBO group. The cell viability was detected by the CCK8 assay. Hoechst 33342 and PI staining assays and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) assays were used to detect cell apoptosis. The ultrastructure of cells, including autophagosomes, lysosomes, and apoptosis, were examined using a transmission electron microscope. The expression of autophagy-related proteins was… More >

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Role of GM3 ganglioside in the pathology of some progressive human diseases and prognostic importance of serum anti-GM3 antibodies
VERA KOLYOVSKA, SONYA IVANOVA, DESISLAVA DRENSKA, DIMITAR MASLAROV, RENETA TOSHKOVA
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.6, pp. 1485-1494, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016250
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Glycosphingolipids (gangliosides) have been characterized as important biological molecules with a key role as regulators in many physiological processes on cellular, tissue, organ, and organism levels. The deviations in their normal amounts, production, and metabolism are very often related to the development of many multi-factor socially important diseases. GM3 ganglioside, as a small molecule, plays important roles in the cascade regulatory pathways in the pathology of many disorders like neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, diabetes, malignant transformation, and others. Ganglioside GM3 and its derivatives are membrane-bound glycosphingolipids composed of an oligosaccharide head structure containing one sialic acid residue. These molecules… More >

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Benefit of prophylactic bronchodilator with β2 adrenergic agonist in ischemia-reperfusion-induced lung injury
CHEN-LIANG TSAI, YU-HUEI LIN, CHIH-YING CHANGCHIEN, CHIH-FENG CHIAN, CHI-HUEI CHIANG
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1201-1211, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014279
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Primary lung graft dysfunction could significantly attribute to ischemia-reperfusion lung injury (IRLI) during transplantation surgery. β2-adrenergic agonists were one of the bronchodilators that had been well-established in the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with anti-inflammatory potency. By applying the model of isolated rat lung, we evaluated the efficacy of short-acting β2-agonist inhalation to ameliorate ischemia-reperfusion damage. The experiment protocol was 180 min of global ischemia and then reperfusion for 60 min. In the β2-agonist inhalation group, aerosolized albuterol was administrated prior ischemia procedure. Increased weight ratios of wet to dry lung and microvascular permeability were characterized… More >

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Mechano-Sensing and shear stress-shielding by endothelial primary cilia: structure, composition, and function
HUAN YIN, LIZHEN WANG, YUBO FAN, BINGMEI M. FU
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1187-1199, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016650
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Primary cilium is an antenna-like and non-motile structure protruding from the apical surface of most mammalian cells including endothelial cells lining the inner side of all the blood vessels in our body. Although it has been over a century since primary cilia were discovered, the investigation about their mechano-sensing and other roles in maintaining normal functions of cardiovascular system has just started in recent years. This focused review aims to give an update about the current literature for the role of endothelial primary cilia in blood flow mechano-sensing and shear stress-shielding. To do this, we first summarized the characteristic features… More >

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Effects of docosahexaenoic acid or arachidonic acid supplementation on gene expression and contractile force of rat cardiomyocytes in primary culture
MIZUNA YANO, YUTA UMEHARA, TOMOKAZU KUDO, TAKAO NAKAMURA, TADASHI KOSAWADA, ATSUYOSHI NISHINA, MASAKI SAZUKA, DAISUKE SATO, ZHONGGANG FENG
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1213-1229, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016281
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract While fatty acids play essential roles in the physiology of the myocardium, conventional culture media contain little lipid. We previously revealed that rat neonatal myocardium mainly contains docosahexaenoic (DHA), linoleic (LA), and arachidonic (AA) acids as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and these contents in cultured cardiomyocytes derived from fetal rats were markedly lower than those in the neonatal myocardium. In this study, we first assessed the effects of supplementation of DHA, LA, or AA on the fatty acid contents and the percentage change of contractile area in primarily cultured rat cardiomyocytes. Based on this assessment, we then evaluated the effects… More >

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TaVNS reduces inflammatory responses in a L-NAME-induced rat model of pre-eclampsia
LINMEI ZHENG, RONG TANG, , ZHONGYI ZHOU
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1231-1240, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015752
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Pre-eclampsia is characterized by an excessive maternal inflammatory response. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) has been shown as the efferent arm of a vagal reflex with the potential to limit inflammatory responses. Therefore, in this study, the CAP regulation through the nervous vagal stimulation (VNS) reduced the severity of NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME)-induced pre-eclampsia was determined in a rat model. Rats were given 125 mg/kg/day of L-NAME via subcutaneous injection on gestational day (GD) 10–16. In addition, the rats were treated by active or sham electrical stimulation once a day during GD 13–19. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), urinary albumin, and… More >

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REVIEW

Microfluidic chips for the endothelial biomechanics and mechanobiology of the vascular system
HAORAN SU, KEXIN LI, XIAO LIU, JING DU, LI WANG, XIAOYAN DENG, YUBO FAN
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 797-811, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014900
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Endothelial cells arranged on the vessel lumen are constantly stimulated by blood flow, blood pressure and pressureinduced cyclic stretch. These stimuli are sensed through mechanical sensory structures and converted into a series of functional responses through mechanotransduction pathways. The process will eventually affect vascular health. Therefore, there has been an urgent need to establish in vitro endothelial biomechanics and mechanobiology of models, which reproduce three-dimensional structure vascular system. In recent years, the rapid development in microfluidic technology makes it possible to replicate the key structural and functionally biomechanical characteristics of vessels. Here, we summarized the progress of microfluidic chips used… More >

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Three-month effects of corneal cross-linking on corneal fibroblasts
XINYAN CHEN, HAIXIA ZHANG, LIN LI
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1023-1032, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014873
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) has revolutionized the treatment of keratoconus in the past decade. In order to evaluate the 3-month effects of CXL on corneal fibroblasts, a longitudinal study at the tissue and cellular level was carried out with a total of 16 rabbits that underwent CXL, deepithelialization (DEP), or non-treatment (control) and kept for 1 to 3 months. The duration of corneal stromal remodeling after CXL was determined by examining the differentiation, apoptosis, and number changes of keratocytes in tissue sections from animals 1, 2, or 3 months post-treatment. Upon the finish of tissue remodeling, separate rabbits were used… More >

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Application of photodynamic therapy in cancer: challenges and advancements
ZIXUAN WANG, HONGMEI PENG, WEI SHI, LU GAN, LIPING ZHONG, JIAN HE, LINLIN XIE, PAN WU, YONGXIANG ZHAO, ZHIMING DENG, HONGLIANG TANG, YONG HUANG
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.3, pp. 489-500, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014439
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Although great achievements have been made in the past decades in medicine, cancer remains a worldwide public health issue. Surgery is usually accompanied by shortcomings such as residual lesions and poor treatment effects, and the successive appearance of other treatment methods, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, has not changed the postoperative recurrence rate, toxicity, and side effects. However, the advent of photodynamic therapy has greatly improved this situation. Photodynamic therapy is an emerging tumor diagnosis and treatment technology with good application prospects, photodynamic therapy uses a specific wavelength of light to excite a photosensitizer to generate reactive oxygen species, damage… More >

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20(R)-ginsenoside Rg3, a product of high-efficiency thermal deglycosylation of ginsenoside Rd, exerts protective effects against scrotal heat-induced spermatogenic damage in mice
WEI LIU, ZI WANG, JING LENG, HENG WEI, SHEN REN, XIAOJIE GONG, CHEN CHEN, YINGPING WANG, RUI ZHANG, WEI LI
BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 655-669, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.013202
（This article belongs to this Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)
Abstract Heat stress (HS) reaction can lead to serious physiological dysfunction associated with cardiovascular and various organ diseases. Ginsenoside Rg3 (G-Rg3) is a representative component of ginseng rare saponin and can protect against multiple organs, also used as functional food to adjust the balance of the human body, but the therapeutic effect and molecular mechanism of G-Rg3 on male diseases under HS are underexplored. The aim of the present study, G-Rg3 was prepared through the efficient conversion of ginsenoside Rd and investigate the contribution of G-Rg3 to testicular injury induced exposure to HS. All mice were divided into four groups as… More >

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