Study on Effect of Cell-Cell Interaction on Cell-Substrate Adhesion Using QCM and Optical Microscope
HUANG Jingyuan1,2, ZHOU Tiean1,2*, TAN Chengfang1,2, PAN Weisong1,2, LI Wenwei1,2
Cell-substrate adhesion is a dynamic and complex process. During normal cell culture and in the process of collective cell migration such as wound healing, different cell density or cell-cell interactions would affect cell-substrate adhesion, but there are few studies on this dynamic effect. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is an efficient tool that can monitor the adhesion interaction between cells and the sensor surface and the dynamic change in cells’ viscoelasticity. In this paper, by culturing different cell numbers to simulate different cell-cell interactions, QCM technology and optical microscopy were used together to study the effect of cell-cell interaction on cell-matrix adhesion in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The results show that the effect of cell-cell interactions on cell adhesion is not monotonic and should to be discussed in terms of the degrees of cell-cell interactions. When cell-cell interactions are in a weaker range (10 000 to 40 000 cells), cell-cell interactions promote cell spreading and the formation of focal adhesion, ultimately enhance cell adhesion; while strong cell-cells inter-interactions (60 000 to 80 000 cells) restrain cell spreading, reduce the area of focal adhesions, and thus weaken cell-substrate adhesion.
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