Issue 3, 2007
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Polymer-tethered membranes as quantitative models for the study of integrin-mediated cell adhesion†

Oliver Purrucker,a   Stefanie Gönnenwein,a   Anton Förtig,b   Rainer Jordan,*bc   Monika Rusp,a   Michael Bärmann,a   Luis Moroder,d   Erich Sackmanna  and  Motomu Tanaka*ae  

* Corresponding authors

a Lehrstuhl für Biophysik E22, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany

b Lehrstuhl für Makromolekulare Stoffe, Department Chemie, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany
E-mail: rainer.jordan@ch.tum.de

c Department of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY, USA

d Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany

e Lehrstuhl für Biophysikalische Chemie, Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

Here we report a remarkable enhancement in the adhesion strength of transmembrane cell receptors, human platelet integrin, in a new class of supported lipid membranes, which are separated from the solid substrates by linear polymer spacers. The amphiphilic polymer tether consists of linear hydrophilic poly(2-oxazoline) chains of defined length (degree of polymerizationn = 104, MW/Mn = 1.30), whose chain termini are functionalized with the tri-functional silane surface coupling group and hydrophobic n-alkyl chains as membrane anchors (lipopolymers). As a model of test cells, giant lipid vesicles were functionalized with synthetic ligand molecules containing the RGD sequence, and the free energy of adhesion Δgad between the integrin-doped tethered membrane and the vesicle was measured using a micro-interferometry technique. It has been demonstrated that the adhesion function of integrin receptors in these polymer-tethered membranes is 30 times stronger than those incorporated into membranes directly deposited onto solid substrates (solid-supported membranes). The obtained results demonstrate that linear lipopolymer spacers provide a fluid and non-denaturing environment for the incorporated cell receptors and allow quantitative modelling of cell adhesion processes.

Graphical abstract: Polymer-tethered membranes as quantitative models for the study of integrin-mediated cell adhesion

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B612069E
Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Aug 2006
Accepted
27 Oct 2006
First published
23 Nov 2006

Soft Matter, 2007,3, 333-336

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Polymer-tethered membranes as quantitative models for the study of integrin-mediated cell adhesion

O. Purrucker, S. Gönnenwein, A. Förtig, R. Jordan, M. Rusp, M. Bärmann, L. Moroder, E. Sackmann and M. Tanaka, Soft Matter, 2007, 3, 333 DOI: 10.1039/B612069E

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