Biophysical approaches for studying the integrity and function of tight junctions
S.R.K. Vedula1, T.S. Lim2, P.J. Kausalya3, W. Hunziker3, G. Rajagopal2, C.T. Lim1,4
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 105-124, 2005, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2005.002.105
Abstract Cell-cell adhesion is an extremely important phenomenon as it influences several biologically important processes such as inflammation, cell migration, proliferation, differentiation and even cancer metastasis. Furthermore, proteins involved in cell-cell adhesion are also important from the perspective of facilitating better drug delivery across epithelia. The adhesion forces imparted by proteins involved in cell-cell adhesion have been the focus of research for sometime. However, with the advent of nanotechnological techniques such as the atomic force microscopy (AFM), we can now quantitatively probe these adhesion forces not only at the cellular but also molecular level. Here, we More >