Effects of Mechanical Strain on Syndecan-4, Focal Adhesion Complexes, and Site-Specific FAK Phosphorylation

Cellular mechanics involves the ability of cells to sense and respond to external forces. The type of deformations that cells undergo such as stretching, compression or shearing depends on physiological conditions such as how muscle deforms during movement. Using a custom fabricated stretching device, we focused on investigating how statically applied mechanical stretch affects syndecan-4, focal adhesion complexes and phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK). These results have potential implications in a variety of fields including biophysics, mechanotransduction, and cellular structure.