The environment you grow up in can strongly influence how you turn out. That applies to people, and to stem cells too.

60 Proteins

A new study has identified 60 proteins that strongly influence how cells respond to their environment and communicate.

Just as it is easier to walk on firm ground than through mud, stem cells move faster on stiff surfaces than on soft ones. Tumor cells move even more quickly on hard surfaces.

Surface stiffness affects more than cell movement. Some stem cells on hard surfaces become bone, while very soft surfaces prompt them to become nerve cells.

But until now, we didn’t understand why. The mechanism behind these behaviors remained unclear.

Now we do

A University of Manchester team tackled this problem by studying integrins—receptors involved in cell communication, growth, and function. Integrins cluster at cell surfaces, giving proteins a place to interact with the outside world.

The researchers examined 2,400 integrin‑protein clusters and used mass spectrometry to narrow the list to 60 proteins essential for linking integrin signals to the rest of the cell.

The work, published in Nature Cell Biology, was highlighted in a university news release. Dr. Jon Humphries explained the importance: “Understanding how cells sense their environment is key to understanding how cancer cells move or how stem cells take on new roles.”

His colleague, Professor Martin Humphries, added: “Knowing how cells sense where they are and how to behave gives us new ways to guide tissue formation and potentially stop harmful cell movement in diseases like cancer.”