title: Covalent and density-controlled surface immobilization of E-cadherin for adhesion force spectroscopy.
abstract: E-cadherin is a key cell-cell adhesion molecule but the impact of receptor density and the precise contribution of individual cadherin ectodomains in promoting cell adhesion are only incompletely understood. Investigating these mechanisms would benefit from artificial adhesion substrates carrying different cadherin ectodomains at defined surface density. We therefore developed a quantitative E-cadherin surface immobilization protocol based on the SNAP-tag technique. Extracellular (EC) fragments of E-cadherin fused to the SNAP-tag were covalently bound to self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of thiols carrying benzylguanine (BG) head groups. The adhesive functionality of the different E-cadherin surfaces was then assessed using cell spreading assays and single-cell (SCSF) and single-molecule (SMSF) force spectroscopy. We demonstrate that an E-cadherin construct containing only the first and second outmost EC domain (E1-2) is not sufficient for mediating cell adhesion and yields only low single cadherin-cadherin adhesion forces. In contrast, a construct containing all five EC domains (E1-5) efficiently promotes cell spreading and generates strong single cadherin and cell adhesion forces. By varying the concentration of BG head groups within the SAM we determined a lateral distance of 5-11 nm for optimal E-cadherin functionality. Integrating the results from SCMS and SMSF experiments furthermore demonstrated that the dissolution of E-cadherin adhesion contacts involves a sequential unbinding of individual cadherin receptors rather than the sudden rupture of larger cadherin receptor clusters. Our method of covalent, oriented and density-controlled E-cadherin immobilization thus provides a novel and versatile platform to study molecular mechanisms underlying cadherin-mediated cell adhesion under defined experimental conditions.
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fichtner
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bärbel
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Sinem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Engin
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deichmann
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Marieelen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oelkers
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Janshoff
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig-University Gieβen, Molecular Oncology of Solid Tumors, Gieβen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Menke
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wedlich
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Clemens M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Franz
mesh_terms: D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D011485:Protein Binding; D054730:Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins