Fibronectin fibers are highly tensed in healthy organs in contrast to tumors and virus-infected lymph nodes.

ABSTRACT: The extracellular matrix (ECM) acts as reservoir for a plethora of growth factors and cytokines some of which are hypothesized to be regulated by ECM fiber tension. Yet, ECM fiber tension has never been mapped in healthy versus diseased organs. Using our recently developed tension nanoprobe derived from the bacterial adhesin FnBPA5, which preferentially binds to structurally relaxed fibronectin fibers, we discovered here that fibronectin fibers are kept under high tension in selected healthy mouse organs. In contrast, tumor tissues and virus-infected lymph nodes exhibited a significantly higher content of relaxed or proteolytically cleaved fibronectin fibers. This demonstrates for the first time that the tension of ECM fibers is significantly reduced upon pathological tissue transformation

SUBMITTER: Fonta CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7852196 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature