Cellular adhesion, processing techniques

Normal cells adhere to surfaces as a requirement for their continued existence. Cell detachment typically results within hours in the onset of apoptosis or programmed cell death. Adhesion of cells to a surface is a complex process and its detailed description is beyond the scope of this discussion. However, in this short section we wish to briefly discuss both the use of the QCM to measure interesting aspects of the cell attachment process as well as to characterize the behavior of fully attached cells in response to changes in their environment. We believe that piezoelectric techniques have a unique role to play in the understanding and utilization of these complex cellular... 

Mechanical forces, stresses, strains, and velocities play a critical role in many important aspects of cell physiology, such as cell adhesion, motility, and signal transduction. The modeling of cell mechanics is a challenging task because of the interconnection of mechanical, electrical, and biochemical processes involvement of different structural cellular components and multiple timescales. It can involve nonlinear mechanics and thermodynamics, and because of its complexity, it is most hkely that it will require the use of computational techniques. Typical steps in the development of a cell modeling include constitutive relations describing the state or evolution of the cell or its components, mathematical solution or transformation of the corresponding equations and boundary conditions, and computational implementation of the model. 

Cellular micropatteming techniques have been used to understand questions in fundamental cell biology. The precise control of the cellular environment has been made possible by microtechnology, which provides new opportunities for understanding biochemical and mechanical processes responsible for changes in cellular behavior. Adhesive extracellular matrix patches can also be designed so that the shape of patterned cells can be controlled. 

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