Astrocytes in the optic nerve head express putative mechanosensitive channels.

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

To establish whether optic nerve head astrocytes express candidate molecules to sense tissue stretch.

Related collections

Most cited references 92

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Piezos are pore-forming subunits of mechanically activated channels

Bertrand Coste, Bailong Xiao, José S. Santos … (2012)

Mechanotransduction plays a crucial role in physiology. Biological processes including sensing touch and sound waves require yet unidentified cation channels that detect pressure. Mouse piezo1 (mpiezo1) and mpiezo2 induce mechanically activated cationic currents in cells; however, it is unknown if piezos are pore-forming ion channels or modulate ion channels. We show that Drosophila piezo (dpiezo) also induces mechanically activated currents in cells, but through channels with remarkably distinct pore properties including sensitivity to the pore blocker ruthenium red and single channel conductances. mpiezo1 assembles as a ~1.2 million-Dalton tetramer, with no evidence of other proteins in this complex. Finally, purified mpiezo1 reconstituted into asymmetric lipid bilayers and liposomes forms ruthenium red-sensitive ion channels. These data demonstrate that piezos are an evolutionarily conserved ion channel family involved in mechanotransduction.

0 comments Cited 401 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Piezo1, a mechanically activated ion channel, is required for vascular development in mice.

Sanjeev S Ranade, Zhaozhu Qiu, Seung-Hyun Woo … (2014)

Mechanosensation is perhaps the last sensory modality not understood at the molecular level. Ion channels that sense mechanical force are postulated to play critical roles in a variety of biological processes including sensing touch/pain (somatosensation), sound (hearing), and shear stress (cardiovascular physiology); however, the identity of these ion channels has remained elusive. We previously identified Piezo1 and Piezo2 as mechanically activated cation channels that are expressed in many mechanosensitive cell types. Here, we show that Piezo1 is expressed in endothelial cells of developing blood vessels in mice. Piezo1-deficient embryos die at midgestation with defects in vascular remodeling, a process critically influenced by blood flow. We demonstrate that Piezo1 is activated by shear stress, the major type of mechanical force experienced by endothelial cells in response to blood flow. Furthermore, loss of Piezo1 in endothelial cells leads to deficits in stress fiber and cellular orientation in response to shear stress, linking Piezo1 mechanotransduction to regulation of cell morphology. These findings highlight an essential role of mammalian Piezo1 in vascular development during embryonic development.

0 comments Cited 370 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Optic nerve damage in human glaucoma. II. The site of injury and susceptibility to damage.

H A Quigley, E M Addicks, W R Green … (1981)

We examined the histologic structure of the optic nerve head in 15 eyes of nine persons with a known glaucoma history. All had been seeing eyes, varying from normal visual acuity and visual field to advanced glaucoma damage. The site of damage to nerve fibers is the scleral lamina cribrosa, where there is local blockage of axonal transport. Early cup size increase prior to definite field loss results from loss of nerve fibers, not from damage to astrocytic glial cells of the nerve head. No selective damage to nerve head capillaries is seen in mildly damaged specimens. Scanning electron microscopic analysis suggests that the structure of the lamina cribrosa is an important determinant of the degree of susceptibility to damage by elevated intraocular pressure.