Figure 5: A single high strain rate stretch alters gene expression.

a, The log₂ fold change of the 365 genes differentially expressed in cells experiencing a single trauma-like stretch (blue) compared to unstretched controls. Expression of these same genes in cells stretched at a fast rate (orange) or pre-treated with blebbistatin (green) or Y-27632 (pink) before a trauma-like stretch is superimposed over the expression of untreated cells stretched at a trauma-like rate. b, Differentially expressed genes (DEG) for cells stretched at trauma-like rate only. c, Expression levels of the genes in b for cells stretched at a fast rate. Expression levels of the genes in b for cells pre-treated with 50 μM blebbistatin (d) or 20 μM Y-27632 (e) before a trauma-like stretch. Violin plots of the distribution of upregulated (f) or downregulated (g) genes from b for cells experiencing a trauma-like stretch (blue), fast stretch (orange), or pretreated with blebbistatin (green) or Y-27632 (pink) before a trauma-like stretch. Reversible rate softening that occurs at fast strain rates reduces changes in gene expression. Pre-treating cells with myosin inhibitors to promote rate softening similarly reduces changes to gene expression. Colored horizontal lines mark the median of the distribution. Gray shaded regions indicate gene expression fold changes of less than 2.