Open Access

REVIEW

Microenvironment promotes cytoskeleton remodeling and adaptive phenotypic transition

by MARIANO BIZZARRI^*, PAOLA PONTECORVI

Department of Experimental Medicine, Systems Biology Group, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00163, Italy

* Address correspondence to: Mariano Bizzarri,

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Tumor Microenvironment and Cytoskeletal Dynamics)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(6), 1357-1362. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.018471

Received 27 July 2021; Accepted 16 September 2021; Issue published 07 February 2022

Abstract

The cytoskeleton includes three main classes of networked filaments behaving as a coherent and complex structure that confers stability to cell shape while serving as sensor of internal/extracellular changes. Microenvironmental stimuli interfere with the non-linear dynamics that govern cytoskeleton architecture, namely by fostering symmetry breakings and transitions across different phenotypic states. Such process induces a wholecoherent adaptive response, involving the reprogramming of biochemical and gene-expression patterns. These characteristics are especially relevant during development, and in those conditions in which a deregulated crosstalk between cells and the stroma is at the core of the pathological process. Therefore, studying how the cytoskeleton can be modified–both pharmacologically and/or through microenvironment-dependent changes–has become a major area of interest in cancer and developmental biology.

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Keywords

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