Centrifugal assessment of cell adhesion.

The design of a chamber for determining the centrifugal force necessary to detach cells from various substrates is presented. Cells from an SV40-transformed murine peritoneal macrophage line and human erythrocytes were used to assess the feasibility of using the chamber for studies of cell adhesion. This work was confirmed the usefulness of the chamber and provided data concerning the force necessary to detach the cells. These data indicated that the percentage of cells detached from a glass substrate was not a function of force alone. The number of cells detaching increased with the impulse applied to the cells when they were exposed to a constant force. Similarly, when the impulse applied to the IC21 cells was maintained at a constant level, the percentage of cells detached by a centrifugal force increased with the magnitude of the force.