Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-07-29eCollection Date: 2024-09-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0199161
Young Joon Suh, Alan T Li, Mrinal Pandey, Cassidy S Nordmann, Yu Ling Huang, Mingming Wu
{"title":"Decoding physical principles of cell migration under controlled environment using microfluidics.","authors":"Young Joon Suh, Alan T Li, Mrinal Pandey, Cassidy S Nordmann, Yu Ling Huang, Mingming Wu","doi":"10.1063/5.0199161","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0199161","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Living cells can perform incredible tasks that man-made micro/nano-sized robots have not yet been able to accomplish. One example is that white blood cells can sense and move to the site of pathogen attack within minutes. The robustness and precision of cellular functions have been perfected through billions of years of evolution. In this context, we ask the question whether cells follow a set of physical principles to sense, adapt, and migrate. Microfluidics has emerged as an enabling technology for recreating well-defined cellular environment for cell migration studies, and its ability to follow single cell dynamics allows for the results to be amenable for theoretical modeling. In this review, we focus on the development of microfluidic platforms for recreating cellular biophysical (e.g., mechanical stress) and biochemical (e.g., nutrients and cytokines) environments for cell migration studies in 3D. We summarize the basic principles that cells (including bacteria, algal, and mammalian cells) use to respond to chemical gradients learned from microfluidic systems. We also discuss about novel biological insights gained from studies of cell migration under biophysical cues and the need for further quantitative studies of cell function under well-controlled biophysical environments in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 3","pages":"031302"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11290890/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141876856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-06-20eCollection Date: 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0202724
Ilhan Gokhan, Thomas S Blum, Stuart G Campbell
{"title":"Engineered heart tissue: Design considerations and the state of the art.","authors":"Ilhan Gokhan, Thomas S Blum, Stuart G Campbell","doi":"10.1063/5.0202724","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0202724","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Originally developed more than 20 years ago, engineered heart tissue (EHT) has become an important tool in cardiovascular research for applications such as disease modeling and drug screening. Innovations in biomaterials, stem cell biology, and bioengineering, among other fields, have enabled EHT technologies to recapitulate many aspects of cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. While initial EHT designs were inspired by the isolated-trabecula culture system, current designs encompass a variety of formats, each of which have unique strengths and limitations. In this review, we describe the most common EHT formats, and then systematically evaluate each aspect of their design, emphasizing the rational selection of components for each application.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 2","pages":"021308"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11192576/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141444070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Macrophages on the wrinkle: Exploring microscale interactions with substrate topography.","authors":"Francesca Cecilia Lauta, Luca Pellegrino, Roberto Rusconi","doi":"10.1063/5.0215563","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0215563","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Macrophages play pivotal roles in the immune response, participating in both inflammatory and pro-healing processes. Like other cells, macrophages continually survey their microenvironment through mechanosensing, adapting their intracellular organization in response to mechanical signals. In this study, we elucidate how macrophages perceive the topographical cues of wrinkled surfaces through actin-based structures, which align with the main pattern direction, thus modulating cell cytoskeletal dynamics. Given that such alterations may regulate mechanosensitive gene expression programs, exploring cellular responses to biomaterial design becomes crucial for developing biomaterials that mitigate adverse reactions.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 2","pages":"022001"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11168750/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141312378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-06-03eCollection Date: 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0198119
James P Conboy, Irene Istúriz Petitjean, Anouk van der Net, Gijsje H Koenderink
{"title":"How cytoskeletal crosstalk makes cells move: Bridging cell-free and cell studies.","authors":"James P Conboy, Irene Istúriz Petitjean, Anouk van der Net, Gijsje H Koenderink","doi":"10.1063/5.0198119","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0198119","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cell migration is a fundamental process for life and is highly dependent on the dynamical and mechanical properties of the cytoskeleton. Intensive physical and biochemical crosstalk among actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments ensures their coordination to facilitate and enable migration. In this review, we discuss the different mechanical aspects that govern cell migration and provide, for each mechanical aspect, a novel perspective by juxtaposing two complementary approaches to the biophysical study of cytoskeletal crosstalk: live-cell studies (often referred to as top-down studies) and cell-free studies (often referred to as bottom-up studies). We summarize the main findings from both experimental approaches, and we provide our perspective on bridging the two perspectives to address the open questions of how cytoskeletal crosstalk governs cell migration and makes cells move.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 2","pages":"021307"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11151447/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141263438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-05-29eCollection Date: 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0201950
Bradley J Roth
{"title":"The magnetocardiogram.","authors":"Bradley J Roth","doi":"10.1063/5.0201950","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0201950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The magnetic field produced by the heart's electrical activity is called the magnetocardiogram (MCG). The first 20 years of MCG research established most of the concepts, instrumentation, and computational algorithms in the field. Additional insights into fundamental mechanisms of biomagnetism were gained by studying isolated hearts or even isolated pieces of cardiac tissue. Much effort has gone into calculating the MCG using computer models, including solving the inverse problem of deducing the bioelectric sources from biomagnetic measurements. Recently, most magnetocardiographic research has focused on clinical applications, driven in part by new technologies to measure weak biomagnetic fields.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 2","pages":"021305"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11139488/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141201436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-03-27eCollection Date: 2024-03-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0176850
Amanda Chang, Xiaodong Wu, Kan Liu
{"title":"Deep learning from latent spatiotemporal information of the heart: Identifying advanced bioimaging markers from echocardiograms.","authors":"Amanda Chang, Xiaodong Wu, Kan Liu","doi":"10.1063/5.0176850","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0176850","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A key strength of echocardiography lies in its integration of comprehensive spatiotemporal cardiac imaging data in real-time, to aid frontline or bedside patient risk stratification and management. Nonetheless, its acquisition, processing, and interpretation are known to all be subject to heterogeneity from its reliance on manual and subjective human tracings, which challenges workflow and protocol standardization and final interpretation accuracy. In the era of advanced computational power, utilization of machine learning algorithms for big data analytics in echocardiography promises reduction in cost, cognitive errors, and intra- and inter-observer variability. Novel spatiotemporal deep learning (DL) models allow the integration of temporal arm information based on unlabeled pixel echocardiographic data for convolution of an adaptive semantic spatiotemporal calibration to construct personalized 4D heart meshes, assess global and regional cardiac function, detect early valve pathology, and differentiate uncommon cardiovascular disorders. Meanwhile, data visualization on spatiotemporal DL prediction models helps extract latent temporal imaging features to develop advanced imaging biomarkers in early disease stages and advance our understanding of pathophysiology to support the development of personalized prevention or treatment strategies. Since portable echocardiograms have been increasingly used as point-of-care imaging tools to aid rural care delivery, the application of these new spatiotemporal DL techniques show the potentials in streamlining echocardiographic acquisition, processing, and data analysis to improve workflow standardization and efficiencies, and provide risk stratification and decision supporting tools in real-time, to prompt the building of new imaging diagnostic networks to enhance rural healthcare engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 1","pages":"011304"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10978053/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140337882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-03-20eCollection Date: 2024-03-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0180899
Georg Meisl
{"title":"The thermodynamics of neurodegenerative disease.","authors":"Georg Meisl","doi":"10.1063/5.0180899","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0180899","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The formation of protein aggregates in the brain is a central aspect of the pathology of many neurodegenerative diseases. This self-assembly of specific proteins into filamentous aggregates, or fibrils, is a fundamental biophysical process that can easily be reproduced in the test tube. However, it has been difficult to obtain a clear picture of how the biophysical insights thus obtained can be applied to the complex, multi-factorial diseases and what this means for therapeutic strategies. While new, disease-modifying therapies are now emerging, for the most devastating disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, they still fall well short of offering a cure, and few drug design approaches fully exploit the wealth of mechanistic insights that has been obtained in biophysical studies. Here, I attempt to provide a new perspective on the role of protein aggregation in disease, by phrasing the problem in terms of a system that, under constant energy consumption, attempts to maintain a healthy, aggregate-free state against the thermodynamic driving forces that inexorably push it toward pathological aggregation.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 1","pages":"011303"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10957229/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140208304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-03-19eCollection Date: 2024-03-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0176784
Monica Rasmussen, J-P Jin
{"title":"Mechanoregulation and function of calponin and transgelin.","authors":"Monica Rasmussen, J-P Jin","doi":"10.1063/5.0176784","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0176784","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is well known that chemical energy can be converted to mechanical force in biological systems by motor proteins such as myosin ATPase. It is also broadly observed that constant/static mechanical signals potently induce cellular responses. However, the mechanisms that cells sense and convert the mechanical force into biochemical signals are not well understood. Calponin and transgelin are a family of homologous proteins that participate in the regulation of actin-activated myosin motor activity. An isoform of calponin, calponin 2, has been shown to regulate cytoskeleton-based cell motility functions under mechanical signaling. The expression of the calponin 2 gene and the turnover of calponin 2 protein are both under mechanoregulation. The regulation and function of calponin 2 has physiological and pathological significance, as shown in platelet adhesion, inflammatory arthritis, arterial atherosclerosis, calcific aortic valve disease, post-surgical fibrotic peritoneal adhesion, chronic proteinuria, ovarian insufficiency, and tumor metastasis. The levels of calponin 2 vary in different cell types, reflecting adaptations to specific tissue environments and functional states. The present review focuses on the mechanoregulation of calponin and transgelin family proteins to explore how cells sense steady tension and convert the force signal to biochemical activities. Our objective is to present a current knowledge basis for further investigations to establish the function and mechanisms of calponin and transgelin in cellular mechanoregulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 1","pages":"011302"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10954348/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140186430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biophysics reviewsPub Date : 2024-02-21eCollection Date: 2024-03-01DOI: 10.1063/5.0185568
Jaeho Lee, Sina Miri, Allison Bayro, Myunghee Kim, Heejin Jeong, Woon-Hong Yeo
{"title":"Biosignal-integrated robotic systems with emerging trends in visual interfaces: A systematic review.","authors":"Jaeho Lee, Sina Miri, Allison Bayro, Myunghee Kim, Heejin Jeong, Woon-Hong Yeo","doi":"10.1063/5.0185568","DOIUrl":"10.1063/5.0185568","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human-machine interfaces (HMI) are currently a trendy and rapidly expanding area of research. Interestingly, the human user does not readily observe the interface between humans and machines. Instead, interactions between the machine and electrical signals from the user's body are obscured by complex control algorithms. The result is effectively a one-way street, wherein data is only transmitted from human to machine. Thus, a gap remains in the literature: how can information be effectively conveyed to the user to enable mutual understanding between humans and machines? Here, this paper reviews recent advancements in biosignal-integrated wearable robotics, with a particular emphasis on \"visualization\"-the presentation of relevant data, statistics, and visual feedback to the user. This review article covers various signals of interest, such as electroencephalograms and electromyograms, and explores novel sensor architectures and key materials. Recent developments in wearable robotics are examined from control and mechanical design perspectives. Additionally, we discuss current visualization methods and outline the field's future direction. While much of the HMI field focuses on biomedical and healthcare applications, such as rehabilitation of spinal cord injury and stroke patients, this paper also covers less common applications in manufacturing, defense, and other domains.</p>","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"5 1","pages":"011301"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10903439/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140177979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A life off the beaten track in biomechanics: Imperfect elasticity, cytoskeletal glassiness, and epithelial unjamming","authors":"Lior Atia, J. Fredberg","doi":"10.1063/5.0179719","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0179719","url":null,"abstract":"Textbook descriptions of elasticity, viscosity, and viscoelasticity fail to account for certain mechanical behaviors that typify soft living matter. Here, we consider three examples. First, strong empirical evidence suggests that within lung parenchymal tissues, the frictional stresses expressed at the microscale are fundamentally not of viscous origin. Second, the cytoskeleton (CSK) of the airway smooth muscle cell, as well as that of all eukaryotic cells, is more solid-like than fluid-like, yet its elastic modulus is softer than the softest of soft rubbers by a factor of 104–105. Moreover, the eukaryotic CSK expresses power law rheology, innate malleability, and fluidization when sheared. For these reasons, taken together, the CSK of the living eukaryotic cell is reminiscent of the class of materials called soft glasses, thus likening it to inert materials such as clays, pastes slurries, emulsions, and foams. Third, the cellular collective comprising a confluent epithelial layer can become solid-like and jammed, fluid-like and unjammed, or something in between. Esoteric though each may seem, these discoveries are consequential insofar as they impact our understanding of bronchospasm and wound healing as well as cancer cell invasion and embryonic development. Moreover, there are reasons to suspect that certain of these phenomena first arose in the early protist as a result of evolutionary pressures exerted by the primordial microenvironment. We have hypothesized, further, that each then became passed down virtually unchanged to the present day as a conserved core process. These topics are addressed here not only because they are interesting but also because they track the journey of one laboratory along a path less traveled by.","PeriodicalId":72405,"journal":{"name":"Biophysics reviews","volume":"184 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139014327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}