[{"quality_controlled":"1","external_id":{"pmid":["42532043"]},"supplementarymaterial":"yes","date_created":"2026-09-17T11:06:06Z","das_tickbox":"1","OA_type":"hybrid","OA_place":"publisher","status":"public","publication_status":"published","issue":"18","date_updated":"2026-09-24T12:36:56Z","project":[{"_id":"eba2549b-77a9-11ec-83b8-a81e493eae4e","name":"Non-Equilibrium Protein Assembly: from Building Blocks to Biological Machines","grant_number":"802960","call_identifier":"H2020"}],"month":"09","ec_funded":1,"publisher":"Elsevier","has_accepted_license":"1","abstract":[{"text":"The regulation of 3D cell shape is a fundamental problem of life. In multicellular tissues, cell shape emerges through the balance of forces inside and outside the cell. In epithelia, the basement membrane (BM) is the first extracellular barrier that cells sense biochemically and mechanically. Despite this, little is known about how BM mechanical properties are regulated and how they impact cell shape. Through mathematical modeling, we show that the stress relaxation time of the BM can regulate cell shape. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the stress relaxation time of a collagen IV network can be inferred from the lifetime of collagen IV molecules. To measure collagen IV lifetime in vivo, we develop a fluorescent timer reporter for collagen IV and show that perlecan modifies collagen IV lifetime. This cross-disciplinary approach establishes a multiscale framework to probe matrix turnover, and its regulation and function in cell shape control.","lang":"eng"}],"article_processing_charge":"Yes (in subscription journal)","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","file_date_updated":"2026-09-24T12:35:11Z","department":[{"_id":"AnSa"}],"ddc":["570"],"citation":{"ama":"Barrientos R, Meadowcroft B, Sánchez-Sánchez BJ, et al. Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape. <i>Cell</i>. 2026;189(18):5611-5624.e4. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010\">10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010</a>","apa":"Barrientos, R., Meadowcroft, B., Sánchez-Sánchez, B. J., Stramer, B. M., Paluch, E. K., Charras, G., … Mao, Y. (2026). Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape. <i>Cell</i>. Elsevier. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010</a>","ieee":"R. Barrientos <i>et al.</i>, “Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape,” <i>Cell</i>, vol. 189, no. 18. Elsevier, p. 5611–5624.e4, 2026.","chicago":"Barrientos, Ricardo, Billie Meadowcroft, Besaiz J. Sánchez-Sánchez, Brian M. Stramer, Ewa K. Paluch, Guillaume Charras, Shiladitya Banerjee, Anđela Šarić, and Yanlan Mao. “Basement Membrane Turnover Controls Cell Shape.” <i>Cell</i>. Elsevier, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010</a>.","mla":"Barrientos, Ricardo, et al. “Basement Membrane Turnover Controls Cell Shape.” <i>Cell</i>, vol. 189, no. 18, Elsevier, 2026, p. 5611–5624.e4, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010\">10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010</a>.","ista":"Barrientos R, Meadowcroft B, Sánchez-Sánchez BJ, Stramer BM, Paluch EK, Charras G, Banerjee S, Šarić A, Mao Y. 2026. Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape. Cell. 189(18), 5611–5624.e4.","short":"R. Barrientos, B. Meadowcroft, B.J. Sánchez-Sánchez, B.M. Stramer, E.K. Paluch, G. Charras, S. Banerjee, A. Šarić, Y. Mao, Cell 189 (2026) 5611–5624.e4."},"author":[{"first_name":"Ricardo","full_name":"Barrientos, Ricardo","last_name":"Barrientos"},{"last_name":"Meadowcroft","orcid":"0000-0003-3441-1337","id":"a4725fd6-932b-11ed-81e2-c098c7f37ae1","first_name":"Billie","full_name":"Meadowcroft, Billie"},{"first_name":"Besaiz J.","full_name":"Sánchez-Sánchez, Besaiz J.","last_name":"Sánchez-Sánchez"},{"first_name":"Brian M.","full_name":"Stramer, Brian M.","last_name":"Stramer"},{"last_name":"Paluch","full_name":"Paluch, Ewa K.","first_name":"Ewa K."},{"last_name":"Charras","first_name":"Guillaume","full_name":"Charras, Guillaume"},{"last_name":"Banerjee","full_name":"Banerjee, Shiladitya","first_name":"Shiladitya"},{"id":"bf63d406-f056-11eb-b41d-f263a6566d8b","orcid":"0000-0002-7854-2139","last_name":"Šarić","full_name":"Šarić, Anđela","first_name":"Anđela"},{"full_name":"Mao, Yanlan","first_name":"Yanlan","last_name":"Mao"}],"intvolume":"       189","doi":"10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010","publication":"Cell","researchdata_availability":"no","day":"03","title":"Basement membrane turnover controls cell shape","oa":1,"fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.010","date_published":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png","short":"CC BY (4.0)"},"page":"5611-5624.e4","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","scopus_import":"1","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1097-4172"],"issn":["0092-8674"]},"article_type":"original","_id":"22955","oa_version":"Published Version","year":"2026","PlanS_conform":"1","pmid":1,"acknowledgement":"We thank all members of the Mao lab for insightful discussions throughout the project, and we thank Giulia Paci and Nargess Khalilgharibi for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank Jonathan Chubb for molecular biology guidance and WellGenetics for generating the timer protein fly lines.\r\nR.B. was funded by a UCL COMPLEX PhD studentship and a Leverhulme Trust project grant RPG-2020-068 awarded to Y.M. B.M. and A.S. were funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC starting grant no. 802960). S.B. was funded by NIH R35 GM143042. G.C. was funded by EPSRC Physics of Life, grants EP/W023806 and EP/W023865. B.J.S.S. and B.M.S. are funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant no. 301803/Z/23/Z to B.M.S.). E.K.P. was funded by the Medical Research Council UK (MRC programme award MC_UU_12018/5). Y.M. was funded by MRC award MR/W027437/1, a Lister Institute Research Prize, and the EMBO Young Investigator Programme.","dataavailabilitystatement":"The fly line generated in this study is available from the lead contact without restriction.\r\nData and code availability\r\n•\r\nCollagen IV fluorescent timer image data and associated data analysis code have been deposited in the UCL Research Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.5522/04/32647191 and are publicly available as of the date of publication.\r\n•\r\nAll original code associated with the tissue mechanics model has also been deposited in the UCL Research Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.5522/04/32647191 and is publicly available as of the date of publication.\r\n•\r\nAll original code associated with the collagen IV network model has been deposited on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20719515 and is publicly available as of the date of publication.\r\n•\r\nAny additional information reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"type":"journal_article","file":[{"file_id":"22990","date_updated":"2026-09-24T12:35:11Z","relation":"main_file","file_name":"2026_Cell_Barrientos.pdf","creator":"dernst","file_size":5642382,"content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"01e74f866223ca9ea8680b617d4aa4e3","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"date_created":"2026-09-24T12:35:11Z"}],"volume":189}]