Figure 3.

Profiles of pathways through which extracellular matrix stiffness affects amino acid metabolism. Extracellular matrix stiffness affects amino acid metabolism in the following three pathways: (i) YAP/TAZ pathway; (ii) kindlin-2 pathway; and (iii) integrin-FAK-PI3K-Akt pathway. The effects of extracellular matrix stiffness on cellular amino acid metabolism can ultimately be summarized as follows: (i) regulating the number of amino acid transport proteins in the cell membrane; (ii) regulating the quantity and activity of enzymes involved in the amino acid synthesis; (iii) regulation of glutamine catabolism; (iv) regulation of the synthesis of glutamine.