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 12,197 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Force arising from myosin activity drives a number of different types of motility in eukaryotic cells. Outside of muscle tissue, the precise mechanism of myosin-based cell motility is for the most part theoretical. A large part of the problem is that, aside from cell surface features such as lamellipodia and microvilli, relatively little is known about the structural organization of potential actin substrates for myosin in non-muscle motile cells. Several groups [Cramer, Siebert and Mitchison (1997) J. Cell Biol. 136, 1287-1305; Guild, Connelly, Shaw and Tilney (1997) J. Cell Biol. 138, 783-797; Svitkina, Verkhovsky, McQuade and Borisy (1997) J. Cell Biol. 139, 397-415] have begun to address this issue by determining actin organization throughout entire non-muscle motile cells. These studies reveal that a single motile cell comprises up to four distinct structural groups of actin organization, distinguished by differences in actin filament polarity: alternating, uniform, mixed or graded. The relative abundance and spatial location in cells of a particular actin organization varies with cell type. The existence in non-muscle motile cells of alternating-polarity actin filament bundles, the organization of muscle sarcomeres, provides direct structural evidence that some forms of motility in non-muscle cells are based on sarcomeric contraction, a recurring theory in the literature since the early days of muscle research. In this scenario, as in muscle sarcomeres, myosin generates isometric force, which is ideally suited to driving symmetrical types of motility, e.g. healing of circular wounds in coherent groups of cells. In contrast, uniform-polarity actin filament bundles and oriented meshworks in cells allow oriented movement of myosin, potentially over relatively long distances. In this simple 'transport-based' scenario, the direction in which myosin generates force is inherently polarized, and is well placed for driving asymmetrical or polarized types of motility, e.g. as expected for long-range transport of membrane organelles. In the more complex situation of cell locomotion, the predominant actin organization detected in locomoting fish keratocytes and locomoting primary heart fibroblasts excludes sarcomeric contraction force from having a major role in pulling these cell types forward during locomotion. Instead Svitkina et al. propose that 'dynamic network contraction' of a weakly adherent uniform-polarity actin filament meshwork is the basis of keratocyte locomotion. For fibroblast locomotion, however, Cramer et al. prefer a transport mechanism based on graded-polarity actin filament bundles.
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PMID:Organization and polarity of actin filament networks in cells: implications for the mechanism of myosin-based cell motility. 1032 Sep 39

In tissues characterized by a high turnover or following acute injury, regeneration replaces damaged cells and is involved in adaptation to external cues, leading to homeostasis of many tissues during adult life. An understanding of the mechanics underlying tissue regeneration is highly relevant to regenerative medicine-based interventions. In order to investigate the existence a leitmotif of tissue regeneration, we compared the cellular aspects of regeneration of skin, nerve and skeletal muscle, three organs characterized by different types of anatomical and functional organization. Epidermis is a stratified squamous epithelium that migrates from the edge of the wound on the underlying dermis to rebuild lost tissue. Peripheral neurons are elongated cells whose neurites are organized in bundles, within an endoneurium of connective tissue; they either die upon injury or undergo remodeling and axon regrowth. Skeletal muscle is characterized by elongated syncytial cells, i.e. muscle fibers, that can temporarily survive in broken pieces; satellite cells residing along the fibers form new fibers, which ultimately fuse with the old ones as well as with each other to restore the previous organization. Satellite cell asymmetrical division grants a reservoir of undifferentiated cells, while other stem cell populations of muscle and non-muscle origin participate in muscle renewal. Following damage, all the tissues analyzed here go through three phases: inflammation, regeneration and maturation. Another common feature is the occurrence of cellular de-differentiation and/or differentiation events, including gene transcription, which are typical of embryonic development. Nonetheless, various strategies are used by different tissues to replace their lost parts. The epidermis regenerates ex novo, whereas neurons restore their missing parts; muscle fibers use a mixed strategy, based on the regrowth of missing parts through reconstruction by means of newborn fibers. The choice of either strategy is influenced by the anatomical, physical and chemical features of the cells as well as by the extracellular matrix typical of a given tissue, which points to the existence of differential, evolutionary-based mechanisms for specific tissue regeneration. The shared, ordered sequence of steps that characterize the regeneration processes examined suggests it may be possible to model this extremely important phenomenon to reproduce multicellular organisms.
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PMID:Restoration versus reconstruction: cellular mechanisms of skin, nerve and muscle regeneration compared. 2598 23