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.

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.