Cellular Reorientation upon Cyclic Stretch can be due to theInstability of Focal Adhesions

[摘要] Cellular reorientation upon cyclic stretch is an intriguing phenomenon, which has drawn intensive scientific attentions lately.When applying uni-axial cyclic stretches to cells on substrate, they gradually rotated themselves to almost perpendicular to thestretch direction [1]. The characteristic time of the cellular reorientation was quantified, which strongly depended on stretch amplitude and cyclic frequency. As revealed in experiments, this characteristic time decreased as the stretch amplitude increased andalso decreased with increasing stretch frequency until it saturated at about 1 Hz [1]. Various models had been developed to provide an important insight into the underlying mechanism for cellular reorientation under cyclic stretch, which, however, remainselusive.