ABSTRACT
Laser Tweezers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 10.6 Future Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Calcium ions (Ca2+) play an important role in the regulation of many aspects of cellular activities, such as muscle contraction, embryogenesis, cell differentiation, proliferation, gene expression, secretion, learning and memory, and apoptosis [3,6,14,23,26,29,33,38,46,49,56]. Recent evidence indicates that mechanical stimulation plays an important role in regulating various cellular functions, including Ca2+signaling [17,21,22,50]. For example, mechanical factors such as substrate stiffness play important roles in determining the differentiation lineage and commitment of human mesenchymal
stem cells [9]. Substrate stiffness also regulates Ca2+ oscillatory signals via the RhoA pathway in human mesenchymal stem cells [22]. Furthermore, capacity Ca2+ entry channels and mechanosensitive channels can be activated by mechanical stimulation, which results in an increase in intracellular calcium concentration and consequently the alteration of a variety of cellular activities [17,47,58].
