Evaluation of intercellular adhesion with a very simple technique

Abstract

Rosetting techniques are widely used to quantify or purify various lymphocytic subpopulations; however, these techniques cannot discriminate between different receptors of similar specificities and different binding strengths, further, they do not provide any information concerning the molecular mechanisms involved in cell-cell adhesion. This paper describes a very simple technique of assaying rosette stability: cell suspensions are driven with known pressure through a calibrated needle with a syringe. Adhesion is quantified before and after this treatment. This procedure did not damage rat peritoneal cells used in a model system. Further, this method yielded fairly reproducible results and allowed a crude estimate of the force involved in the binding of glutaraldehyde-treated sheep red cells (GSRC) or immunoglobulin-coated sheep red cells (IGSRC) by rat macrophages (an average force of 0.8 x 10(-7) Newton was needed to separate 50% of bound IGSRC from macrophages). Binding and binding strength were found to be independent parameters. Last, this method possibly provided a way of separating two distinct subpopulations of rat macrophages. It is suggested that this technique might be routinely used to refine rosette studies.