Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
6
pubmed:dateCreated
2002-1-9
pubmed:abstractText
It is widely accepted that numerous cell types respond to mechanical stimuli, yet there is no general agreement as to whether particular cells respond directly to stress, strain, strain-rate, strain-energy, or other mechanical quantities. By recalling the definitions of the mathematical (not physical) concepts of stress and strain, it is suggested herein that cells cannot respond directly to these continuum metrics or to quantities derived from them--mechanistic models will need to be based on more fundamental quantities, as, for example, inter-atomic forces or conformational changes of the appropriate molecules. Nonetheless, the concepts of stress and strain should continue to play an important role in mechanobiology, both in the identification of empirical correlations and in the development of phenomenological constitutive models, each of which can contribute to our basic understanding as well as help in the design of future experiments and some clinical interventions. It is important to remember, therefore, that empirical correlations and most constitutive relations in continuum mechanics do not seek to model the actual physics--rather, their utility is in their predictive capability, which is often achieved via different relations in terms of different metrics for the same material under different conditions. Hence, with regard to quantifying cellular responses to mechanical stimuli, we must delineate between the identification of fundamental mechanisms and the formulation of phenomenological correlations, the latter of which only requires convenient metrics that need not be unique or physical.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Dec
pubmed:issn
0148-0731
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
123
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
638-41
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2001
pubmed:articleTitle
Stress, strain, and mechanotransduction in cells.
pubmed:affiliation
Biomedical Engineering Program, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-3120, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Technical Report