From Single Molecules to Living Cells: Nanomechanical Measurements of Cell Adhesion

Abstract

This review highlights complementary force probe techniques and illustrates how these approaches provide different, but complementary insight into molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion. As a model system, we focus on classical cadherins, which mediate cell–cell adhesion in all solid tissues. The experimental approaches described probe cadherin binding from single molecules to cells, and quantify the kinetics, energetics, and mechanical strengths of cadherin-mediated adhesive contacts. The cumulative findings of these complementary studies reveal complexities of the cadherin binding mechanism, and quantify relevant bond parameters. Importantly these different approaches demonstrate how the strengths and kinetics of cadherin bonds at the single molecule level govern the initial dynamics of adhesion between living cells. The findings also exemplify the capacity of these different force probe techniques to identify novel properties of molecular interactions governing biological adhesion.