scholarly journals Energy Expenditure during Cell Spreading Induces AMPK Activation and Regulates the Mechanoresponse of Stem Cells

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Xie ◽  
Min Bao ◽  
Xinyu Hu ◽  
Werner J. H. Koopman ◽  
Wilhelm T. S. Huck

AbstractCells respond to the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) through formation of focal adhesions (FAs), re-organization of the actin cytoskeleton and adjustment of cell contractility. These are energy-demanding processes, but a potential causality between mechanical cues and cellular (energy) metabolism remains largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that cytoskeletal reorganization and FA formation during cell spreading on stiff substrates lead to a drop in intracellular ATP levels, thereby activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). The latter then triggers rapid mitochondrial fragmentation and an increase in ATP levels to reinforce cell tension and regulate nuclear localization of YAP/TAZ and Runx2. Genetic ablation of AMPK Thr-172 phosphorylation lowered cellular ATP content and strongly reduced responses to substrate stiffness. Together, these findings reveal the importance of energy expenditure in regulating the mechanoresponse of cells, and point to AMPK as a key mediator of stem cell fate in response to ECM mechanics.

2019 ◽  
Vol 294 (46) ◽  
pp. 17693-17706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishani Dasgupta ◽  
Dannel McCollum

To perceive their three-dimensional environment, cells and tissues must be able to sense and interpret various physical forces like shear, tensile, and compression stress. These forces can be generated both internally and externally in response to physical properties, like substrate stiffness, cell contractility, and forces generated by adjacent cells. Mechanical cues have important roles in cell fate decisions regarding proliferation, survival, and differentiation as well as the processes of tissue regeneration and wound repair. Aberrant remodeling of the extracellular space and/or defects in properly responding to mechanical cues likely contributes to various disease states, such as fibrosis, muscle diseases, and cancer. Mechanotransduction involves the sensing and translation of mechanical forces into biochemical signals, like activation of specific genes and signaling cascades that enable cells to adapt to their physical environment. The signaling pathways involved in mechanical signaling are highly complex, but numerous studies have highlighted a central role for the Hippo pathway and other signaling networks in regulating the YAP and TAZ (YAP/TAZ) proteins to mediate the effects of mechanical stimuli on cellular behavior. How mechanical cues control YAP/TAZ has been poorly understood. However, rapid progress in the last few years is beginning to reveal a surprisingly diverse set of pathways for controlling YAP/TAZ. In this review, we will focus on how mechanical perturbations are sensed through changes in the actin cytoskeleton and mechanosensors at focal adhesions, adherens junctions, and the nuclear envelope to regulate YAP/TAZ.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. e202000753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Ulisse ◽  
Swagata Dey ◽  
Deborah E Rothbard ◽  
Einav Zeevi ◽  
Irena Gokhman ◽  
...  

During development, neurons adjust their energy balance to meet the high demands of robust axonal growth and branching. The mechanisms that regulate this tuning are largely unknown. Here, we show that sensory neurons lacking liver kinase B1 (Lkb1), a master regulator of energy homeostasis, exhibit impaired axonal growth and branching. Biochemical analysis of these neurons revealed reduction in axonal ATP levels, whereas transcriptome analysis uncovered down-regulation of Efhd1 (EF-hand domain family member D1), a mitochondrial Ca2+-binding protein. Genetic ablation of Efhd1 in mice resulted in reduced axonal morphogenesis as well as enhanced neuronal death. Strikingly, this ablation causes mitochondrial dysfunction and a decrease in axonal ATP levels. Moreover, Efhd1 KO sensory neurons display shortened mitochondria at the axonal growth cones, activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)–Ulk (Unc-51–like autophagy-activating kinase 1) pathway and an increase in autophagic flux. Overall, this work uncovers a new mitochondrial regulator that is required for axonal morphogenesis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (18) ◽  
pp. 4631-4636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tojo Razafiarison ◽  
Claude N. Holenstein ◽  
Tino Stauber ◽  
Milan Jovic ◽  
Edward Vertudes ◽  
...  

Although mechanisms of cell–material interaction and cellular mechanotransduction are increasingly understood, the mechanical insensitivity of mesenchymal cells to certain soft amorphous biomaterial substrates has remained largely unexplained. We reveal that surface energy-driven supramolecular ligand assembly can regulate mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) sensing of substrate mechanical compliance and subsequent cell fate. Human MSCs were cultured on collagen-coated hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and hydrophilic polyethylene-oxide-PDMS (PEO-PDMS) of a range of stiffnesses. Although cell contractility was similarly diminished on soft substrates of both types, cell spreading and osteogenic differentiation occurred only on soft PDMS and not hydrophilic PEO-PDMS (elastic modulus <1 kPa). Substrate surface energy yields distinct ligand topologies with accordingly distinct profiles of recruited transmembrane cell receptors and related focal adhesion signaling. These differences did not differentially regulate Rho-associated kinase activity, but nonetheless regulated both cell spreading and downstream differentiation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 303 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna M. Peters ◽  
Kathleen Herbert ◽  
Brenda Biddick ◽  
Jennifer A. Peterson

2000 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. Baciu ◽  
S. Saoncella ◽  
S.H. Lee ◽  
F. Denhez ◽  
D. Leuthardt ◽  
...  

Syndecan-4 is a cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan which, in cooperation with integrins, transduces signals for the assembly of focal adhesions and actin stress fibers in cells plated on fibronectin. The regulation of these cellular events is proposed to occur, in part, through the interaction of the cytoplasmic domains of these transmembrane receptors with intracellular proteins. To identify potential intracellular proteins that interact with the cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-4, we carried out a yeast two-hybrid screen in which the cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-4 was used as bait. As a result of this screen, we have identified a novel cellular protein that interacts with the cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-4 but not with those of the other three syndecan family members. The interaction involves both the membrane proximal and variable central regions of the cytoplasmic domain. We have named this cDNA and encoded protein syndesmos. Syndesmos is ubiquitously expressed and can be myristylated. Consistent with its myristylation and syndecan-4 association, syndesmos colocalizes with syndecan-4 in the ventral plasma membranes of cells plated on fibronectin. When overexpressed in NIH 3T3 cells, syndesmos enhances cell spreading, actin stress fiber and focal contact formation in a serum-independent manner.


2008 ◽  
Vol 294 (1) ◽  
pp. C126-C135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Zheng ◽  
Anjana Perianayagam ◽  
Donna H. Lee ◽  
M. Douglas Brannan ◽  
Li E. Yang ◽  
...  

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), activated by an increase in intracellular AMP-to-ATP ratio, stimulates pathways that can restore ATP levels. We tested the hypothesis that AMPK activation influences extracellular fluid (ECF) K+ homeostasis. In conscious rats, AMPK was activated with 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-d-ribofuranoside (AICAR) infusion: 38.4 mg/kg bolus then 4 mg·kg−1·min−1 infusion. Plasma [K+] and [glucose] both dropped at 1 h of AICAR infusion and [K+] dropped to 3.3 ± 0.04 mM by 3 h, linearly related to the increase in muscle AMPK phosphorylation. AICAR treatment did not increase urinary K+ excretion. AICAR lowered [K+] whether plasma [K+] was chronically elevated or lowered. The K+ infusion rate needed to maintain baseline plasma [K+] reached 15.7 ± 1.3 μmol K+·kg−1·min−1 between 120 and 180 min AICAR infusion. In mice expressing a dominant inhibitory form of AMPK in the muscle (Tg-KD1), baseline [K+] was not different from controls (4.2 ± 0.1 mM), but the fall in plasma [K+] in response to AICAR (0.25 g/kg) was blunted: [K+] fell to 3.6 ± 0.1 in controls and to 3.9 ± 0.1 mM in Tg-KD1, suggesting that ECF K+ redistributes, at least in part, to muscle ICF. In summary, these findings illustrate that activation of AMPK activity with AICAR provokes a significant fall in plasma [K+] and suggest a novel mechanism for redistributing K+ from ECF to ICF.


Diabetes ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. S. da-Silva ◽  
J. W. Harney ◽  
B. W. Kim ◽  
J. Li ◽  
S. D.C. Bianco ◽  
...  

1992 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-762
Author(s):  
G.H. Nuckolls ◽  
L.H. Romer ◽  
K. Burridge

Talin is believed to be one of the key proteins involved in linking actin filaments to extracellular matrix receptors in focal adhesions. Our strategy for studying the function of talin has been to inactivate talin in living fibroblasts in tissue culture through the microinjection of affinity-purified, polyclonal anti-talin antibodies. The effect of the injected anti-talin antibodies on cell spreading was found to depend on how recently the cells had been plated. Cells that were in the process of spreading on a fibronectin substratum, and which had newly developed focal adhesions, were induced to round up and to disassemble many of the adhesions. However, if fibroblasts were allowed to spread completely before they were microinjected with the anti-talin antibody, focal adhesions remained intact and the flat morphology of the cells was unaffected. The percentage of cells that were able to maintain a spread morphology despite the injection of anti-talin antibodies increased during the first few hours after plating on fibronectin substrata. Fibroblasts that were allowed to spread completely before microinjection with the anti-talin antibody retained both intact focal adhesions and a flat, well-spread morphology, but failed to migrate effectively. Our experiments do not directly address the role of talin in mature focal adhesions, but they indicate that talin is essential for the spreading and migration of fibroblasts on fibronectin as well as for the development and initial maintenance of focal adhesions on this substratum.


2010 ◽  
Vol 188 (6) ◽  
pp. 891-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet A. Askari ◽  
Christopher J. Tynan ◽  
Stephen E.D. Webb ◽  
Marisa L. Martin-Fernandez ◽  
Christoph Ballestrem ◽  
...  

Integrins undergo global conformational changes that specify their activation state. Current models portray the inactive receptor in a bent conformation that upon activation converts to a fully extended form in which the integrin subunit leg regions are separated to enable ligand binding and subsequent signaling. To test the applicability of this model in adherent cells, we used a fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET)–based approach, in combination with engineered integrin mutants and monoclonal antibody reporters, to image integrin α5β1 conformation. We find that restricting leg separation causes the integrin to adopt a bent conformation that is unable to respond to agonists and mediate cell spreading. By measuring FRET between labeled α5β1 and the cell membrane, we find extended receptors are enriched in focal adhesions compared with adjacent regions of the plasma membrane. These results demonstrate definitely that major quaternary rearrangements of β1-integrin subunits occur in adherent cells and that conversion from a bent to extended form takes place at focal adhesions.


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