Editor's Summary

31 May 2007

A stretch in the cells

How do cells in our body go about their routine mechanical business of stretching, contracting and remodelling? This question has far-reaching implications for understanding airway narrowing in asthma, cell invasion in cancer and vessel constriction in cardiovascular disease. The answer, arrived at in a novel experimental system measuring the 'stretch' of human airway smooth muscle cells, is that the cell has much in common with familiar materials including tomato ketchup, shaving foam and toothpaste. These materials fluidize when deformed, as do granular materials including sugar in a bowl or coffee beans. Such materials act as a glass-like intermediate form of matter, neither solid nor fluid but retaining features of both.

Letter: Universal physical responses to stretch in the living cell

Xavier Trepat, Linhong Deng, Steven S. An, Daniel Navajas, Daniel J. Tschumperlin, William T. Gerthoffer, James P. Butler & Jeffrey J. Fredberg

doi:10.1038/nature05824

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