Mechanotaxis refers to the directed movement of cell motility via mechanical cues (e.g., fluidic shear stress, substrate stiffness gradients, etc.).
[1][4] Mechanotaxis is critical in many normal biological processes in animals, such as gastrulation,[5] inflammation,[6] and repair in response to a wound,[7] as well as in mechanisms of diseases such as tumor metastasis.
[7] A subset of mechanotaxis - termed durotaxis - refers specifically to cell migration guided by gradients in substrate rigidity (i.e.
Researchers began investigating mechanotaxis of endothelial cells in blood vessels and wound repair in the 1990s and early 2000s.
As these receptors interact and are pulled or pushed, tension can be created, leading to a change in the conformation of alpha-catenin bound to B-catenin on the intracellular portion of E-cadherin.
This noncanonical pathway involves the activation of Rho and Rac families of GTPases, which are essential in reorganizing the cytoskeleton in preparation for cell migration.
The tension created by a cell pulling against a stiff substrate needs to reach a certain threshold to allow for mechanotaxis to occur.
[14] Cell migration is essential in early embryonic development, as a defining characteristic of this phase is the folding and reorganization of the embryo that occurs during and after gastrulation.