Scientists have discovered how cells decide when to respond to physical forces, potentially opening new avenues for combating diseases such as cancer and fibrosis.
The study, led by researchers at King’s College London and the Catalan Institute of Bioengineering (IBEC), revealed that cells in the body not only sense force, but also measure how long the force lasts before deciding to act.
In doing so, they outline a timing mechanism that allows cells to ignore short-term mechanical stimuli while responding to sustained changes, a process important in disease progression.
In daily life, cells are exposed to various mechanical signals. Tissues in organs such as the lungs, heart, and bladder are constantly subjected to fast, repetitive forces such as from breathing, heartbeat, and bladder emptying, while processes such as wound healing and tumor growth cause slower, sustained changes.
Cells must continually interpret these physical forces along with chemical signals from their surroundings. Although scientists have long understood how cells respond to chemical cues, little was known about how cells process mechanical signals over time.
Researchers now believe that cells use “low-pass filters” to screen out short-term disturbances, but respond to sustained long-term changes.
Professor Pere Roca-Cuzax, senior author of the paper, principal investigator in the Cellular and Molecular Mechanical Biology Group at IBEC and full professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Barcelona (UB), explains:
”Imagine you’re driving down the highway and hear a loud noise coming from next to you. You’ll probably react quickly because it could be dangerous. But if you hear a small unusual noise coming from your engine, you might ignore it unless it continues for a while. Cells face similar challenges. You need to decide which signals are important and when to respond to them.”
The researchers discovered that for this mechanism, cells rely on structures called fibrillar adhesions, which are specialized contact points that allow cells to physically grasp their surroundings and transmit mechanical forces into the interior of the cell.
These structures help to “hold” the cell nucleus in a deformed state even after the force disappears, allowing the signal to persist for about an hour. It is held in place by a network of fibers called vimentin, which maintains its effectiveness over time. When this system is disrupted, cells lose the ability to “retain” mechanical signals and respond much more quickly, but with reduced selectivity.
In fact, this creates a biological filter. Temporary forces are ignored, while sustained forces cause a reaction. Many important processes depend on this timing, including the activity of the cancer-associated protein YAP.
This research not only explains how cells and tissues work, but also this temporal element that we first investigated has great implications for the future of therapy.
Many diseases, including cancer and fibrosis, involve long-term changes in tissue stiffness and mechanical forces. Understanding how cells interpret the role these complex mechanical signals play in disease progression may allow researchers to design better treatments in the future. ”
Dr Amy Beadle, Lecturer in Biophysics at King’s University and lead author of the study
The findings also indicate that this mechanism helps protect cell nuclei from damage under physical stress.
The research team now aims to further investigate how this timing mechanism works in complex tissues and disease environments where mechanical changes are a key part of disease progression.
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Reference magazines:
Beadle, AEM, Others. (2026). The dynamics of fibrillar adhesion governs the timescale of vimentin cytoskeleton-mediated nuclear mechanical responses. natural materials. DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02590-x. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-026-02590-x
