Figure 1.

The role of mechanical stress in guiding cardiomyocytes in differentiation and maturation. The differentiation stage is referring the duration from progenitor stem cells to immature cardiomyocytes within prenatal phase, whereas the maturation stage is mainly referring to the post-natal phase to establish a functional cardiomyocyte. The shear stress would be loaded to cardiovascular system since tube formation, but it mainly impacts the early stage of cardiac development and vascular migrations. Cyclic strain influences cardiomyocytes after the heart starts to beat, while contributing to maintain heart function throughout all lifetime. The static stretch is considered to play a major role after birth as the pressure goes up rapidly and becomes the most dominant one following aging. PSCs, progenitor stem cells.