Micromanipulation of Adhesion of a Jurkat Cell to a Planar Bilayer Membrane Containing Lymphocyte Function-Associated Antigen 3 Molecules

Abstract. Cell adhesion plays a fundamental role in the organization of cells in differentiated organs, cell motility, and immune response. A novel micromanipulation method is employed to quantify the direct contribution of surface adhesion receptors to the physical strength of cell adhesion. In this technique, a cell is brought into contact with a glass-supported planar membrane reconstituted with a known concentration of a given type of adhesion molecules. After a period of incubation (5-10 min), the cell is detached from the planar bilayer by pulling away the pipette holding the cell in the direction perpendicular to the glasssupported planar bilayer. In particular, we investigated the adhesion between a Jurkat cell expressing CD2 and a glass-supported planar bilayer containing eithe