Mechanosensitivity, i.e. the specific response to mechanical stimulation, is common to a wide variety of cells in many different organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals. Mechanical stress can modulate physiological processes at the molecular, cellular, and systemic level. The primary target for mechanical stimulation is the plasma membrane of the cell, which can respond to variable physical stress with changes of the open probability of mechanosensitive ion channels. Thus, acting on ion channels in the plasma membrane, mechanical stress can elicit a multitude of biochemical processes – both transient and long-lasting – inside a cell. This may ultimately influence the function of tissues and organs in health and disease. Several stretch-induced signaling cascades have been described with multiple levels of crosstalk between the different pathways. Increased sensitivity of the cells to mechanical stress is found under various pathological conditions. A detailed study of the underlying mechanisms may therefore help to identify novel therapeutic targets for a future clinical use.

Contents

• Review of the Book
• Review of the Book
• Contributors
• Editorial
  • Mechanosensitivity of Cells from Various Tissues
    Andre Kamkin and Irina Kiseleva.
• Part I: Molecular Mechanisms of Mechanotransduction
  • Mechanotransduction in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
    Giannis Voglis and Nektarios Tavernarakis.
• Part II: Mechanosensitivity of the Heart Cells: Fundamental Aspects and Clinical Implication
  • Mechanically Mediated Crosstalk in Heart
    Max J Lab.
  • Swelling- and Stretch-activated Chloride Channels in the Heart: Regulation and Function
    Clive M. Baumgarten, David M. Browe, and Zuojun Ren.
  • Role of Stretch-activated Channels in the Heart: Action Potential and Ca²⁺ Transients
    Jae Boum Youm, Jin Han, Nari Kim, Yin-Hua Zhang, Euiyong Kim, Chae Hun Leem, Sung Joon Kim, and Yung E. Earm.
    Accepted January 26, 2004; Received February 15, 2005.
  • Isolated Cardiomyocytes: Mechanosensitivity of Action Potential, Membrane Current and Ion Concentration
    Gerrit Isenberg, Denis Kondratev, Vitaly Dyachenko, Victor Kazanski, and Maria Fiora Gallitelli.
  • Mechano-Electric Feedback in the Heart: Evidence from Intracellular Microelectrode Recordings on Multicellular Preparations and Single Cells from Healthy and Diseased Tissue
    Andre Kamkin, Irina Kiseleva, Kay-Dietrich Wagner, and Holger Scholz.
  • The Role of Mechanosensitive Fibroblasts in the Heart
    Andre Kamkin, Irina Kiseleva, Ilya Lozinsky, Kay-Dietrich Wagner, Gerrit Isenberg, and Holger Scholz.
  • Mechanical Modulation of Intracellular Ion Concentrations: Mechanisms and Electrical Consequences
    Sarah C. Calaghan and Ed White.
  • Stretch-induced Slow Force Response in Mammalian Ventricular Myocardium
    Dirk von Lewinski, Jens Kockskämper, and Burkert Pieske.
  • The Na⁺/H⁺ Exchanger as the Main Protagonist following Myocardial Stretch: The Anrep Effect and Myocardial Hypertrophy
    Horacio E. Cingolani, Ernesto A. Aiello, Néstor G. Pérez, Irene L. Ennis, and María C. Camilión de Hurtado.
  • Mechano-Electric Feedback and Atrial Arrhythmias
    Flavia Ravelli.
  • The Role of Mechano-Electrical Feedback in the Cholinergic Atrial Fibrillation Initiation
    Vadim V. Fedorov, Oksana P. Trifonova, Alex V. Glukhov, Michael R. Rosen, and Leonid V. Rosenshtraukh.
• Part III: Mechanosensitivity of Cells from Various Tissues
  • Mechanosensitive Cation Channels of Leech Neurons
    Mario Pellegrino, Barbara Calabrese, M.Carla Menconi, Cristina Barsanti, and Monica Pellegrini.
  • Mechanosensitivity of Primary Afferent Nociceptors in the Pain Pathway
    Helge Eilers and Mark A. Schumacher.
  • Stimulus–Secretion Coupling in the Osmoreceptive Prolactin Cell of the Tilapia
    Andre P. Seale, Tetsuya Hirano, and E. Gordon Grau.
  • Stretch-inactivated Channels in Skeletal Muscle
    Jeffry B. Lansman and Alfredo Franco-Obregón.
  • Stretch-activated Cation Channels and the Myogenic Response of Small Arteries
    Rudolf Schubert and Joseph E. Brayden.
  • Mechanobiology of Bone Tissue and Bone Cells
    Astrid Liedert, Daniela Kaspar, Peter Augat, Anita Ignatius, and Lutz Claes.
  • Functional Roles of Mechanosensitive Ion Channels, ß1 Integrins and Kinase Cascades in Chondrocyte Mechanotransduction
    Ali Mobasheri, Richard Barrett-Jolley, Stuart D. Carter, Pablo Martín-Vasallo, Gundula Schulze-Tanzil, and Mehdi Shakibaei.
  • Enigmatic Roles of the Epithelial Sodium Channel (ENaC) in Articular Chondrocytes and Osteoblasts: Mechanotransduction, Sodium Transport or Extracellular Sodium Sensing?
    Ali Mobasheri, Richard Barrett-Jolley, Mehdi Shakibaei, Cecilia M. Canessa, and Pablo Martín-Vasallo.
• Appendix

By the kind support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Russian State Medical University