Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MechanoFate (From mechanical stress to vascular fate)
Période du rapport: 2020-07-01 au 2021-06-30
Completion of this project allowed us to identify several new nuclear mechanotransduction mechanisms which contribute to regulate gene expression and genome organization in vascular cells. Our work indicates that these force-activated signaling pathways are major regulators of cell growth and may constitute potential new therapeutic targets in cardiovascular and regenerative medicine.
In the second part of this project, we identified cytoskeletal proteins that are only expressed in resident vascular stem cells and not in more differentiated cells of the vascular wall. Among these candidates, we identified a protein associated with actin filaments that is necessary for stretch-induced differentiation into smooth muscle cells.