Accepted Article This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/hep.30193 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. MR. DARIUSZ LACHOWSKI (Orcid ID : 0000-0003-1194-8019) DR. ARMANDO RIO DEL RIO HERNANDEZ (Orcid ID : 0000-0001-5062-8910) Article type : Original RAR- is downregulated in HCC & cirrhosis and its expression inhibits myosin-driven activation and durotaxis in hepatic stellate cells Ernesto Cortes 1* , Dariusz Lachowski 1* , Alistair Rice 1* , Antonios Chronopoulos 1 , Benjamin Robinson 1 , Stephen Thorpe 2 , David A Lee 2 , Lucia A Possamai 3 , Haiyun Wang 4 , David J Pinato 5§ , and Armando E. del Río Hernández 1§ 1 Cellular and Molecular Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom 2 School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom 3 Division of Integrative Systems Medicine and Digestive Disease, Imperial College London, London W12 0HS, United Kingdom 4 School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 5 Department of Surgery and Cancer, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Imperial College London, London W12 0HS, United Kingdom § Corresponding authors: Armando E. del Río Hernández, PhD Cellular and Molecular Biomechanics Laboratory Department of Bioengineering