title: Quantitating cell-cell interaction functions with applications to glioblastoma multiforme cancer cells.
abstract: We report on a method for quantitating the distance dependence of cell-cell interactions. We employ a microchip design that permits a multiplex, quantitative protein assay from statistical numbers of cell pairs, as a function of cell separation, with a 0.15 nL volume microchamber. We interrogate interactions between pairs of model brain cancer cells by assaying for six functional proteins associated with PI3k signaling. At short incubation times, cells do not appear to influence each other, regardless of cell separation. For 6 h incubation times, the cells exert an inhibiting influence on each other at short separations and a predominately activating influence at large separation. Protein-specific cell-cell interaction functions are extracted, and by assuming pairwise additivity of those interactions, the functions are shown to correctly predict the results from three-cell experiments carried out under the identical conditions.
authors.affiliation: NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center and Kavli Nanoscience Institute, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tham
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Young Shik
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Habib
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Qihui
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jenkan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Raphael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Heath
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002450:Cell Communication; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004867:Equipment Design; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases