Main description:

Cell adhesion - the attachment of cells to any surface such as other cell membranes or tissues - is a complex process. In many physiological and pathological processes adhesion of a cell is the first critical step.
A wide spectrum of the most powerful techniques currently available to study the basic parameters of cell adhesion, including binding strength, binding efficiency, membrane-membrane or membrane-substrate interaction, structural properties and dynamics of cell surface molecules, is presented in this strategy book. Sophisticated quantitative approaches as well as comprehensible semi-quantitative methods are described. The detailed theoretical background allows the critical assessment and application of these techniques.

Contents:

1. Introduction.- 2. The Surface Force Technique: Interactions Between Surfactant Bilayers and Between Protein Layers.- 3. Direct Measurements of Specific Ligand-Receptor Interactions Between Model Membrane Surfaces.- 4. The Study of Biomolecules on Surfaces Using the Scanning Force Microscope.- 5. Surface Force Measurement Techniques and Their Application to the Interaction Between Surfactant Coated Surfaces.- 6. Measurement of the Strength of Cell-Cell and Cell-Substratum Adhesion with Simple Methods.- 7. Method to Assess the Strength of Cell-Cell Adhesion Using a Modified Flow Cytometer.- 8. A Quantitative Cell Adhesion Assay Based on Differential Centrifugation of Bound Cells.- 9. Picoforce Method to Probe Submicroscopic Actions in Biomembrane Adhesion.- 10. Study of Cell-Cell Interactions with the Travelling Microtube.- 11. Analysis of the Motion of Cells Driven Along an Adhesive Surface by a Laminar Shear Flow.- 12. Techniques for Studying Blood Platelet Adhesion.- 13. Interference Reflection Microscopy and Related Microscopies and Cell Adhesion.- 14. Advances Towards the Measurement of Cell Contacts with Surfaces at Near Nanometer Vertical Resolution by Means of Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence.- 15. Electron Microscopical Analysis of Cell-Cell and Cell-Substrate Interactions: Use of Image Analysis, X-Ray Microanalysis and EFTEM.