#extracellular matrix

[bpod-bpod]

Making the Matrix

The extracellular matrix (ECM) – the protein and mineral network outside cells – is essential for tissues' healthy function. Secretion of the ECM is regulated by a complex within cells, an organelle called the Golgi apparatus. In this study, the roles of different protein components of the apparatus in ECM secretion are revealed

Read the published research article here

Video from work by George Thompson and colleagues

School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Journal of Cell Biology, August 2025

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[intelligentliving]

Inhaled Nanoparticle Treatment To Detect Cancer And Pneumonia

MIT researchers developed a nanoparticle-based approach for early diagnosis of lung cancer. It involves inhaling or injecting the sensors that react with the tumor cells in the body and enable a urine test to detect the presence of proteins linked to the disease. It’s a non-invasive and quick way to...

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Engineering ECM-like fibers with bioactive silk for 3-D cell culture

Biological tissues are built when cells anchor to specific sites on a 3-D microfiber network in an extracellular matrix (ECM). Scientists are keen to recreate biological tissues in the lab using bioinspired tissue engineering and genetic engineering, to form functional ECM motifs fused to recombinant silk proteins. Under adequate physiological conditions, bioengineered silk proteins and fibronectin-silk (FN-silk) can self-assemble into microfiber networks that mimic native ECM.

In a recent study, Ulrika Johansson, Mona Widhe and co-workers at the interdisciplinary departments of Biotechnology, Biomaterials Chemistry, and Immunology in Sweden developed a method to include mammalian cells into a silk solution before assembling silk into constructs, to form uniform cell-integrated tissue-like microfibers. The resulting 3-D scaffold constructs showed improved cell proliferation (growth) and homogenous cell spreading compared to cells encapsulated in hydrogel. The results of the study are now published in Scientific Reports.

The scientists confirmed cell attachment on fibronectin-silk constructs (FN-Silk) in the work by observing filamentous actin and by defining focal adhesion points of the attached, elongated cells. They maintained cell viability for 90 days in the cell-FN/silk surfaces and showed scalability of the method to macro-sized 3-D cell cultures. The silk microfiber bundles with encapsulated cells maintained biomechanical strength and extendibility much like human arterial walls.

Read more.

[sarcasticcynic]

Yale scientists discover molecular key to how cancer spreads

Combining experimental analysis and clinical data, Yale researchers have discovered a mechanism in cancer’s spread that could help develop new drug treatments.

Some good news for the weekend: We may actually be a step closer to finding a cure for cancer.

Yes, really.

Most of the fatal outcomes in cancer are due to “metastasis,” the spread of cancer cells throughout the body. One way metastasis occurs is through “epithelial-mesenchymal transition” (EMT), a process that breaks neighboring cells apart from each other. Until now, the medical field has been assuming that EMT is triggered by “chemical signals or genetic changes in the cells.”

Researchers at the Yale Cancer Center have now discovered that a very common biological alignment of fibers in the “extracellular matrix” (ECM) that supports cells can trigger the EMT process. They dug deeper, and found two specific mechanisms at the molecular level that cause the ECM fiber alignment and lead to EMT. They compared their findings with kidney cancers, and confirmed that those particular mechanisms were indeed active at the molecular level in actual cancers, causing the cancer cells to break from each other and spread to other tissue.

With this knowledge, medical science may be able to develop cancer treatments that target those specific molecular mechanisms, thereby discouraging the EMT process and preventing cancerous cells from spreading.

The study is here.

[bpod-bpod]

Rhobo Meets Matrix

Close-up on the extracellular matrix (ECM) – the molecules and minerals that are outside cells but involved with their biochemical and mechanical signalling – made possible using a fluorophore called Rhobo6 that binds the sugar chain glycans abundant in ECM

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Antonio Fiore and colleagues

Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Ashburn, VA, USA

Video contributed by the authors under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence

Published in Nature Methods, February 2025

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[bpod-bpod]

Excise and Customise

This study uses human mesenchymal (the embryonic origin of connective tissue) cell lines (immortal and unlimited lab-grown cells) as a surrogate supply of extracellular matrix – the molecules outside cells but influential in their functions and behaviour. Customising these cells by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing reveals biochemical components of the matrix that are important in bone tissue repair

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Sujeethkumar Prithiviraj and colleagues

Cell, Tissue & Organ Engineering Laboratory, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund Stem Cell Centre, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), January 2025

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Placenta Platform

A bioprinted, high-throughput trophoblast (the specialised cell layer in early embryo development that becomes the placenta) organoid model. Manipulating the extracellular matrix of the organoid reveals its importance in shaping trophoblast development. The model reproducibly mimics the placental microenvironment aiding study of complications of pregnancy and how to avoid/treat them.

Read the published research article here

Still from video from work by Claire Richards and colleagues

School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Video contributed by the authors and originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, September 2025

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Cancer Invasion Signals

Breast cancer organoids (3D lab-grown tissue models) demonstrate a molecule called YAP in the cancer cell promotes collagen fibre alignment remodelling the extracellular matrix which further activates YAP – a feedforward loop which enhances collective cancer cell invasion

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Antoine A. Khalil and colleagues

Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM), University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, June 2024

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