Macrophages modulate stiffness-related foreign body responses through plasma membrane deformation.

ABSTRACT: Implants are widely used in medical applications and yet macrophage-mediated foreign body reactions caused by implants severely impact their therapeutic effects. Although the extensive use of multiple surface modifications has been introduced to provide some mitigation of fibrosis, little is known about how macrophages recognize the stiffness of the implant and thus influence cell behaviors. Here, we demonstrated that macrophage stiffness sensing leads to differential inflammatory activation, resulting in different degrees of fibrosis. The potential mechanism for macrophage stiffness sensing in the early adhesion stages tends to involve cell membrane deformations on substrates with different stiffnesses. Combining theory and experiments, we show that macrophages exert traction stress on th

SUBMITTER: Ni Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9934070 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature