Fig. 2.

Tensile strength and cell fate of the ECM. The increasing rigidity of tissue can have dramatic effects on cell fate. In normal embryonic stem cells the rigidity of the matrix they are exposed to can influence their cell fate, with the resulting cells becoming either neurogenic (brain), myogenic (muscle) or osteogenic (bone) with increasing matrix stiffness, respectively. In cancer, increasing matrix rigidity leads to increased deposition of ECM components (collagen I & V) as well as increased degradation to help facilitate tumour growth. The increased ECM stiffness results in increased recruitment of integrins to focal adhesions, the upregulation of downstream integrin signalling pathways and increased Rho kinase (ROCK) activation, resulting in proliferation and cell survival