In-situ adhesion studies of a single living bovine endothelial cell using MEMS sensor

Although previous studies of the adhesion properties of single living cells have been conducted a full understanding has still not been attained. In this article a MEMS sensor has been employed to study, quantitatively and qualitatively, the adhesion properties of a single living bovine endothelial cell. The strength of a single focal adhesion site to an extracellular matrix coated substrate is found to be 37 nN. Focal adhesion sites have been observed, in-situ, to be spaced on the order of 1 /spl mu/m intervals. A model is also proposed to describe the mechanism of detachment of a single living cell from a substrate.