Principles of Mechanosensing at the Membrane Interface

Abstract

Mechanotransduction is a general term for all physiological processes through which living cells sense and respond to external and/or internal mechanical stimuli. These stimuli are converted into electrochemical intracellular signals via various mechanosensory transducers eliciting specific cellular responses. Among the many molecular mechanosensors found in living cells, mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels form a group of the fastest signaling molecules essential for cellular mechanotransduction. In this chapter, we discuss the basic principles of ion channel mechanosensitivity and highlight the importance of the surrounding lipid bilayer, cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. We also discuss how these facets of channel mechanosensitivity may be reduced to changes of the transbilayer pressure profile and MS channel conformations that mutually affect each other according to the ‘force-from-lipids’ paradigm.