PROGRESSIVE DETACHMENT OF CELLS FROM SURFACES - A CONSEQUENCE OF HETEROGENEOUS LIGAND POPULATIONS OR A MULTISITE BINDING EQUILIBRIUM

A multi-site binding equilibrium model is proposed to describe the eff ect of applied shear on the detachment of affinity adsorbed particles or cells from surfaces. Unlike earlier models used to describe this ph enomenon the current approach considers the extent to which multiple i nteractions show surface cooperativity such that the attached fraction can be described in terms of a number of subpopulations linked via di ffering numbers of ligand/receptor interactions. (C) 1996 Academic Pre ss Ltd