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Mechanical feedback as a possible regulator of tissue growth.

ABSTRACT: Regulation of cell growth and proliferation has a fundamental role in animal and plant development and in the progression of cancer. In the context of development, it is important to understand the mechanisms that coordinate growth and patterning of tissues. Imaginal discs, which are larval precursors of fly limbs and organs, have provided much of what we currently know about these processes. Here, we consider the mechanism that is responsible for the observed uniformity of growth in wing imaginal discs, which persists in the presence of gradients in growth inducing morphogens in spite of the stochastic nature of cell division. The phenomenon of "cell competition," which manifests in apoptosis of slower-growing cells in the vicinity of faster growing tissue, suggests that uniform growth is not a default state but a result of active regulation. How can a patch of tissue compare its growth rate with that of its surroundings? A possible way is furnished by mechanical interactions. To demonstrate this mechanism, we formulate a mathematical model of nonuniform growth in a layer of tissue and examine its mechanical implications. We show that a clone growing faster or slower than the surrounding tissue is subject to mechanical stress, and we propose that dependence of the rate of cell division on local stress could provide an "integral-feedback" mechanism stabilizing uniform growth. The proposed mechanism of growth control is not specific to imaginal disc growth and could be of general relevance. Several experimental tests of the proposed mechanism are suggested.

SUBMITTER: Shraiman BI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC552900 | biostudies-other | 2005 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Mechanical feedback as a possible regulator of tissue growth.

Shraiman Boris I BI

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20050222 9

Regulation of cell growth and proliferation has a fundamental role in animal and plant development and in the progression of cancer. In the context of development, it is important to understand the mechanisms that coordinate growth and patterning of tissues. Imaginal discs, which are larval precursors of fly limbs and organs, have provided much of what we currently know about these processes. Here, we consider the mechanism that is responsible for the observed uniformity of growth in wing imagin ...[more]

PMID: 15728365

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Project description:Cell competition is a phenomenon originally described as the competition between cell populations with different genetic backgrounds; losing cells with lower fitness are eliminated. With the progress in identification of related molecules, some reports described the relevance of cell mechanics during elimination. Furthermore, recent live imaging studies have shown that even in tissues composed of genetically identical cells, a non-negligible number of cells are eliminated during growth. Thus, mechanical cell elimination (MCE) as a consequence of mechanical cellular interactions is an unavoidable event in growing tissues and a commonly observed phenomenon. Here, we studied MCE in a genetically-homogeneous tissue from the perspective of tissue growth efficiency and homeostasis. First, we propose two quantitative measures, cell and tissue fitness, to evaluate cellular competitiveness and tissue growth efficiency, respectively. By mechanical tissue simulation in a pure population where all cells have the same mechanical traits, we clarified the dependence of cell elimination rate or cell fitness on different mechanical/growth parameters. In particular, we found that geometrical (specifically, cell size) and mechanical (stress magnitude) heterogeneities are common determinants of the elimination rate. Based on these results, we propose possible mechanical feedback mechanisms that could improve tissue growth efficiency and density/stress homeostasis. Moreover, when cells with different mechanical traits are mixed (e.g., in the presence of phenotypic variation), we show that MCE could drive a drastic shift in cell trait distribution, thereby improving tissue growth efficiency through the selection of cellular traits, i.e. intra-tissue "evolution". Along with the improvement of growth efficiency, cell density, stress state, and phenotype (mechanical traits) were also shown to be homogenized through growth. More theoretically, we propose a mathematical model that approximates cell competition dynamics, by which the time evolution of tissue fitness and cellular trait distribution can be predicted without directly simulating a cell-based mechanical model.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) synthesize extracellular matrix (ECM) that contributes to tissue remodeling after revascularization interventions. The cytokine transforming growth factor ? (TGF-?) is induced on tissue injury and regulates tissue remodeling and wound healing, but dysregulated signaling results in excess ECM deposition and fibrosis. The LIM (Lin11, Isl-1 & Mec-3) domain protein LIM domain only 7 (LMO7) is a TGF-?1 target gene in hepatoma cells, but its role in vascular physiology and fibrosis is unknown. METHODS:We use carotid ligation and femoral artery denudation models in mice with global or inducible smooth muscle-specific deletion of LMO7, and knockout, knockdown, overexpression, and mutagenesis approaches in mouse and human SMC, and human arteriovenous fistula and cardiac allograft vasculopathy samples to assess the role of LMO7 in neointima and fibrosis. RESULTS:We demonstrate that LMO7 is induced postinjury and by TGF-? in SMC in vitro. Global or SMC-specific LMO7 deletion enhanced neointimal formation, TGF-? signaling, ECM deposition, and proliferation in vascular injury models. LMO7 loss of function in human and mouse SMC enhanced ECM protein expression at baseline and after TGF-? treatment. TGF-? neutralization or receptor antagonism prevented the exacerbated neointimal formation and ECM synthesis conferred by loss of LMO7. Notably, loss of LMO7 coordinately amplified TGF-? signaling by inducing expression of Tgfb1 mRNA, TGF-? protein, ?v and ?3 integrins that promote activation of latent TGF-?, and downstream effectors SMAD3 phosphorylation and connective tissue growth factor. Mechanistically, the LMO7 LIM domain interacts with activator protein 1 transcription factor subunits c-FOS and c-JUN and promotes their ubiquitination and degradation, disrupting activator protein 1-dependent TGF-? autoinduction. Importantly, preliminary studies suggest that LMO7 is upregulated in human intimal hyperplastic arteriovenous fistula and cardiac allograft vasculopathy samples, and inversely correlates with SMAD3 phosphorylation in cardiac allograft vasculopathy. CONCLUSIONS:LMO7 is induced by TGF-? and serves to limit vascular fibrotic responses through negative feedback regulation of the TGF-? pathway. This mechanism has important implications for intimal hyperplasia, wound healing, and fibrotic diseases.

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Mechanical feedback as a possible regulator of tissue growth.

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Mechanical feedback as a possible regulator of tissue growth.

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