Mechanical strain-induced c-fos expression in pulmonary epithelial cell line A549.

Pulmonary epithelial cells are exposed to mechanical strain during physiological breathing and mechanical ventilation. It was not clear which style was more related with cell mechanotransduction. c-fos is known to be a component of a transcription factor, activator protein-1, which is induced by oxidative stress. The regulatory pathways involved in the rapid response of the AP-1 transcription factor, c-fos, to mechanical load in the human pulmonary epithelial cell line A549 were investigated using a four-point bending model. In an effort to better understand what processes are involved in mechanotransduction, we have examined whether and how soon c-fos induction occurs in human A549 shortly after the application of the different mechanical strains stimuli.