Cell adhesion. Competition between nonspecific repulsion and specific bonding - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1984 Jun;45(6):1051-64.
doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(84)84252-6.

Cell adhesion. Competition between nonspecific repulsion and specific bonding

G I Bell, M Dembo, P Bongrand

Cell adhesion. Competition between nonspecific repulsion and specific bonding

G I Bell et al. Biophys J. 1984 Jun.

Abstract

We develop a thermodynamic calculus for the modeling of cell adhesion. By means of this approach, we are able to compute the end results of competition between the formation of specific macromolecular bridges and nonspecific repulsion arising from electrostatic forces and osmotic (steric stabilization) forces. Using this calculus also allows us to derive in a straightforward manner the effects of cell deformability, the Young's modulus for stretching of bridges, diffusional mobility of receptors, heterogeneity of receptors, variation in receptor number, and the strength of receptor-receptor binding. The major insight that results from our analysis concerns the existence and characteristics of two phase transitions corresponding, respectively, to the onset of stable cell adhesion and to the onset of maximum cell-cell or cell-substrate contact. We are also able to make detailed predictions of the equilibrium contact area, equilibrium number of bridges, and the cell-cell or cell-substrate separation distance. We illustrate how our approach can be used to improve the analysis of experimental data, by means of two concrete examples.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. J Cell Physiol. 1978 Oct;97(1):29-36 - PubMed
    1. J Cell Sci. 1980 Feb;41:75-88 - PubMed
    1. J Cell Sci. 1982 Aug;56:21-48 - PubMed
    1. J Cell Biol. 1984 Apr;98(4):1201-8 - PubMed
    1. Science. 1978 May 12;200(4342):618-27 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources