Tensegrity and beyond

Tensegrity and beyond The tensegrity concept describes the organization of matter into compressive and tensional moments, aimed at providing stability to a structure. Its legacy by engineers and architects is well established. In the past decades, thanks to the work of the American biologist Donald Ingber, the notion of tensegrity has been brightly developed in cell biology. In this paper, the new fields that the tensegrity concept could invest are described, with the aim to provide a holistic vision on the tensegrional strategies the body is performing to conserve its stability, integrity, shape and youth. On the base of James Oschman’s work on connective tissue, the fundamental hypothesis that aging is a mere matter of body shortening, as a consequence of stress to the musculo-skeletal apparatus, is discussed. A few considerations are spent on the reversibility of a negligible tensegrional support, through the implication of the para-sympathetic system. The latter is the most potent anti-inflammatory device of the body, set in motion by physical stimulation, beyond immune and biochemical regulations.