Nature Communications (Nov 2017)
Novel peptide probes to assess the tensional state of fibronectin fibers in cancer
Abstract
The extracellular matrix is under variable strain, but we lack the tools to detect differences in strain. Here the authors develop a probe based on a bacterial fibronectin-binding peptide that binds to relaxed fibronectin fibrils and detects relaxed matrix in cell culture, tissue slices and in vivo.