Se-in Kim, M.A., CCC-SLP
Doctoral Student
Thibeault Laboratory
Communication Sciences and Disorders
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Piezo1 Mechanosensitive Channel in Human Immortalized Vocal Fold Fibroblast
Human vocal folds are under significant phonatory stress. Common benign vocal fold mucosal pathologies can arise due to mechanical trauma. However, the underlying mechanism of how the vocal fold cells receive external mechanical forces and translate to cell response is hardly known. Piezo is a lately discovered family of mechanosensitive cation channels expressed in a wide range of mechanically sensitive tissues and cell types. In murine vocal folds, Piezo1 plays a role in murine vocal fold epithelial (re)modeling during development and after injury. The aim of this study was to investigate the biological role of Piezo1 in human vocal fold fibroblasts (hVFF). This study, in our knowledge, was the first to discover the Piezo1 channel protein in hVFF. In addition, the effect of pharmaceutical activation of the Piezo1 channel in hVFF on intracellular Ca2+ concentration and gene expression was investigated. The long-term goal of this study is to decipher the contribution of mechanosignaling to vocal fold tissue homesotasis or disease development, so as to develop novel treatment for benign vocal fold mucosal disorders.
This work is funded by R01Dc4336; salary funded by R21Dc021012