Regulation of cell behavior and tissue patterning by bioelectrical signals: challenges and opportunities for biomedical engineering.

ABSTRACT: Achieving control over cell behavior and pattern formation requires molecular-level understanding of regulatory mechanisms. Alongside transcriptional networks and biochemical gradients, there functions an important system of cellular communication and control: transmembrane voltage gradients (V(mem)). Bioelectrical signals encoded in spatiotemporal changes of V(mem) control cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Moreover, endogenous bioelectrical gradients serve as instructive cues mediating anatomical polarity and other organ-level aspects of morphogenesis. In the past decade, significant advances in molecular physiology have enabled the development of new genetic and biophysical tools for the investigation and functional manipulation of bioelectric cues. Recent data implicat

SUBMITTER: Levin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10472538 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature