Affiliations: Physiology Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Note: [] Address of correspondence: Dr. Guillaume Lenormand, Harvard School of Public Health, Physiology Program, Department of Environmental Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Bldg I-1308, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Tel.: +1 617 432 1363; Fax: +1 617 432 3468; E-mail: glenorma@hsph.harvard.edu.
Abstract: A trail of evidence has led to an unexpected intersection of topical issues in condensed matter physics and cytoskeletal biology. On the one hand, the glass transition and the jammed state are two outstanding unsolved problems; such systems are out-of-equilibrium, disordered, and their transitions between solid-like and liquid-like states are not understood. On the other hand, cellular systems are increasingly being considered as interconnected maps of protein interactions that are highly specific and tightly regulated but, even when such comprehensive maps become available, they may be insufficient to define biological function at the integrative level because they do not encompass principles that govern dynamics at intermediate (meso) scales of organization. It is interesting, therefore, that the cytoskeleton of the living cell shows physical properties and remodeling dynamics with all the same signatures as soft inert condensed systems, although with important differences as well. Data reviewed here suggest that trapping, intermittency, and approach to kinetic arrest represent mesoscale features of collective protein–protein interactions linking underlying molecular events to integrative cellular functions such as crawling, contraction and remodeling. Because these are crucial cell functions, this synthesis may offer new perspectives on a variety of disorders including infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, asthma and cancer.
