Feeling the Pull

Tissues and organs that experience mechanical stresses, like the heart or bladder, comprise cells that are tightly packed but with mobility in response to mechanical stimuli. They make contact with their neighbours at sticky junctions called desmosomes, which when faulty can underlie disorders like cancer and heart disease. Dissecting the protein components of the desmosome, researchers here identify that one called desmoplakin is conformationally changed by forces transmitted through the cell's actin network (part of the inner scaffold or cytoskeleton), acting as a mechanosensor – simulated here being unfolded by pulling forces

Read the published research article here

Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Video from work by Yinchen Dong and colleagues
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, October 2025