Authors
Lei Xia, Anish Ashok Adpaikar, Liling Wen, Yuval Rinkevich
Published in
Seminars in cell & developmental biology. Volume 183. Pages 103684. Jul 17, 2026. Epub Jul 17, 2026.
Abstract
Tissue development and regeneration are governed by a dynamic interplay between biochemical signaling programs and biophysical forces that act across molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. Mechanical cues including cytoskeletal tension, extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness and viscoelasticity, fluid shear, and hydrostatic pressure serve not merely as passive by-products of growth but as active regulators of cell fate, polarity, and morphogenesis. Through integrin- and cadherin-mediated adhesions, RhoA-ROCK contractility, and mechanosensitive pathways such as YAP/TAZ and β-catenin, cells sense and generate forces that coordinate collective migration, apical constriction, convergent extension, branching morphogenesis, and self-organization of organ primordia. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of ECM remodeling, nuclear mechanotransduction, and tissue-scale macromolecular flows as critical determinants of tissue patterning, organ architecture, and stem cell differentiation. This review synthesizes current insights into how mechanical forces shape development and regeneration, emphasizing the regulation of cell, tissue, and organ behavior through mechanochemical feedback loops and the ECM niche. Understanding how physical forces interface with gene regulatory networks will be essential for decoding developmental design principles and engineering functional tissues and organoids.
PMID:
42468059
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Jul 2026.
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