Quantification of cell surface roughness; a method for studying cell mechanical and adhesive properties.
The presence on the surface of nucleated cells of a variety of asperities of different size and shape plays a prominent role in cell-cell and cell-substrate interaction. Also, the organization of these asperities is directly related to cellular cytoskeletal elements. In the present report, we describe a simple and objective method of studying electron micrographs to quantify the roughness of cell contours. Constant-length segments of cell boundaries are compared to reference circular segments with common extremities and enclosing the same area. This procedure was performed with a digitizer connected to a microcomputer, and it was used to analyse model contours or electron micrographs of (i) target tumour cells bound by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and (ii) thymocytes sticking to concanavalin A-coated surfaces. It is shown that this method allows precise quantification of cell deformation in adhesive zones, which may allow absolute evaluation of adhesive stimuli.
D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D003201:Computers; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D051381:Rats; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013499:Surface Properties; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic