It remains that the mechanism by which cells are sensing stiffness is still far from being understood.
Other aspects of these designs are also discussed, including sweeping motion, scaling, force sensing, stiffness control, etc. From the results, the tendon-driven designs and concentric tube design complement each other in terms of their workspace, which is influenced by the number of sections as well as the length distribution among sections.
Perhaps one additional aspect that 2D models can easily provide is to improve our understanding of how cells sense stiffness and durotax, especially with such shallow gradients.
Therefore, it can be concluded that chondrocytes surrounded by a soft fibrin network were unable to sense the stiffness of the underlying scaffold/substrate and hence facilitate chondrogenesis even on stiff scaffolds.
Through experimental results and computational modeling, I will discuss how YAP-dependent mechanical memory and dynamic mechanotransduction enable the collectively migrating cells to sense matrix stiffness of both past and present.
Over the last decade it has been demonstrated that a variety of tissue-forming cells can both sense the stiffness of their substrate and apply a controlled force onto that substrate.
Our finding that the Spk orients towards the softer of two surfaces suggests that C. albicans may be able to sense surface stiffness.
Recent studies show that chondrocytes sense the stiffness of the matrix and differentially respond to it by altering their phenotype, resulting in production of different types of ECM (i.e., ratio of collagen type II to type I) [ 70– 72].
In detail, EPCs can sense matrix stiffness through signaling cascades downstream of integrin ligation leading to the activation of the Rho guanosine triphosphate hydrolase, cell division control protein 42 homolog.
One can speculate that these forces primarily function to sense substrate stiffness, which is the basis of durotaxis and can guide differentiation of stem cells (see also the pieces by Ben Fabry and Carina Wollnik et al. in this forum).
This creates a mechanism of haptic feedback whereby the cells "pull" on each other with the stress fiber acting as a mechanosensor during collisions, similar to its hypothesized role in sensing substrate stiffness (Trichet et al., 2012).
