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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 10.
Published in final edited form as: MRS Bull. 2013 Mar 1;38(3):260–268. doi: 10.1557/mrs.2013.54

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic of cells within a native extracellular matrix (ECM). Cells (gray) bind specific ECM proteins (green) with cell-surface receptors, such as integrins (brown), to form adhesions important in cell viability, migration, and mechanotransduction. Cell-cell junctions (purple) in addition to cell-ECM adhesions allow the cell to feel mechanical forces in its environment through cytoskeletal stress fibers (red). The ECM is also a reservoir for important soluble cytokines and chemokines (red), which bind to specific cell-surface receptors (orange). The structural fibers of the ECM (yellow) can be cleaved by proteinases secreted by the cells, allowing for localized matrix remodeling. Adapted from Reference 4.