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This work was supported by the European Research Council to ADRH (grant agreement 282051). We wish to thank all CMBL members for help with this project.

Analysis of institutional authors

Cortes, ErnestoAuthor

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March 30, 2023
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Adhesive ligand tether length affects the size and length of focal adhesions and influences cell spreading and attachment

Publicated to:Scientific Reports. 6 34334- - 2016-09-30 6(), DOI: 10.1038/srep34334

Authors: Attwood, Simon J; Cortes, Ernesto; Haining, Alexander William M; Robinson, Benjamin; Li, Danyang; Gautrot, Julien; Hernandez, Armando del Rio

Affiliations

Imperial Coll London, Cellular & Mol Biomechan Lab, Dept Bioengn, London, England - Author
Queen Mary Univ London, Inst Bioengn, Sch Engn & Mat Sci, Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, England - Author
Queen Mary Univ London, Sch Engn & Mat Sci, Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, England - Author

Abstract

Cells are known to respond to physical cues from their microenvironment such as matrix rigidity. Discrete adhesive ligands within flexible strands of fibronectin connect cell surface integrins to the broader extracellular matrix and are thought to mediate mechanosensing through the cytoskeleton-integrin-ECM linkage. We set out to determine if adhesive ligand tether length is another physical cue that cells can sense. Substrates were covalently modified with adhesive arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) ligands coupled with short (9.5 nm), medium (38.2 nm) and long (318 nm) length inert polyethylene glycol tethers. The size and length of focal adhesions of human foreskin fibroblasts gradually decreased from short to long tethers. Furthermore, we found cell adhesion varies in a linker length dependent manner with a remarkable 75% reduction in the density of cells on the surface and a 50% reduction in cell area between the shortest and longest linkers. We also report the interplay between RGD ligand concentration and tether length in determining cellular spread area. Our findings show that without varying substrate rigidity or ligand density, tether length alone can modulate cellular behaviour.

Keywords

Extracellular-matrixFibronectinForceLocomotionMalignant phenotypeMoleculeNanoscale architectureRigidityStiffnessSubstrate flexibility

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2016, it was in position 10/63, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Multidisciplinary Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.38. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 5.99 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-16, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 52
  • Europe PMC: 22

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-16:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 90.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 90 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 3.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 4 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.