Shear-stress sensing by PIEZO1 regulates tendon stiffness in rodents and influences jumping performance in humans.

ABSTRACT: Athletic performance relies on tendons, which enable movement by transferring forces from muscles to the skeleton. Yet, how load-bearing structures in tendons sense and adapt to physical demands is not understood. Here, by performing calcium (Ca²⁺) imaging in mechanically loaded tendon explants from rats and in primary tendon cells from rats and humans, we show that tenocytes detect mechanical forces through the mechanosensitive ion channel PIEZO1, which senses shear stresses induced by collagen-fibre sliding. Through tenocyte-targeted loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments in rodents, we show that reduced PIEZO1 activity decreased tendon stiffness and that elevated PIEZO1 mechanosignalling increased tendon stiffness and strength, seemingly through upregulated collage

SUBMITTER: Passini FS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7612848 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature