A Review of Cell Adhesion Studies for Biomedical and Biological Applications

Abstract

Cell adhesion is essential in cell communication and regulation, and is of fundamental importance in the development and maintenance of tissues. The mechanical interactions between a cell and its extracellular matrix (ECM) can influence and control cell behavior and function. The essential function of cell adhesion has created tremendous interests in developing methods for measuring and studying cell adhesion properties. The study of cell adhesion could be categorized into cell adhesion attachment and detachment events. The study of cell adhesion has been widely explored via both events for many important purposes in cellular biology, biomedical, and engineering fields. Cell adhesion attachment and detachment events could be further grouped into the cell population and single cell approach. Various techniques to measure cell adhesion have been applied to many fields of study in order to gain understanding of cell signaling pathways, biomaterial studies for implantable sensors, artificial bone and tooth replacement, the development of tissue-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip in tissue engineering, the effects of biochemical treatments and environmental stimuli to the cell adhesion, the potential of drug treatments, cancer metastasis study, and the determination of the adhesion properties of normal and cancerous cells. This review discussed the overview of the available methods to study cell adhesion through attachment and detachment events.

Shaping the Cell and the Future: Recent Advancements in Biophysical Aspects Relevant to Regenerative Medicine

“…Integrins can also interact via their cytoplasmic tails via various adaptor and signalling molecules to activate downstream signalling pathways such as tyrosine kinases and phosphatases and regulate gene expression by responding to external biophysical stimuli. Such so-called mechanotransduction pathways establish positive-feedback loops that cause integrin engagement to activate processes such as actin-myosin cytoskeleton contractility, through which FAs are reinforced [40][41][42]. For this reason, the cytoskeleton contractility propagated inside the cell becomes directly proportional to the cells' adhesion strength and the ECM elastic modulus.…”

“…By binding to the ECM, integrins build highly dynamic adhesion complexes referred to as focal adhesions (FAs), whose mechanical modulation induces integrin-mediated signal pathway activation. Such activation can lead to the spatio-temporal coordination of multiple downstream events [40] and cause diverse biophysical cues such as mechanical forces or surface-associated properties, such as roughness or elasticity, to affect the cytoskeleton, cell shape and FA assembly and modification [40][41][42]. Integrins can also interact via their cytoplasmic tails via various adaptor and signalling molecules to activate downstream signalling pathways such as tyrosine kinases and phosphatases and regulate gene expression by responding to external biophysical stimuli.…”

Multifunctional biomaterial coatings: synthetic challenges and biological activity

“…Problems arising in context of vascular grafts are protein and platelet adhesion that can lead to infections and occlusion as well as insufficient endothelialzation (Qi et al, 2013). Beyond that, directed and selective cell adhesion is required to elucidate various biological events ( Figure 5) (Esch et al, 2015;Khalili and Ahmad, 2015). Hence, new strategies to gain selective cell adhesion, recruitment of progenitor cells and subsequent differentiation, are developed.…”

Label-free cell-substrate adhesion imaging on plasmonic nanocup arrays

“…In addition, changes in cell adhesion can define the presence of diseases such as cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis [2]. Tumor cells often exhibit changes in adhesion to an extracellular matrix (ECM) determined by the cell and oncogene type [4,5].…”

“…Cell adhesion drives crucial cellular functions including differentiation, cell cycle, cell migration, cell survival, and angiogenesis [1][2][3]. In addition, changes in cell adhesion can define the presence of diseases such as cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis [2].…”