ADHESIVE INTERACTIONS OF LIPOSOMES WITH SUPPORTED PLANAR BILAYERS ON QCM AS A NEW ADHESION MODEL

In order to investigate the molecular characteristics of carbohydrate- mediated cell interactions we introduce a model system on the basis of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). In this study, the adhesion of r eceptor-coupled liposomes as cell models to ligand containing model me mbranes at the quartz surface has been quantified. Thus, a glycolipid- ligand containing supported planar bilayer was transferred onto the qu artz surface by a combined method of lipid self assembly (SA) and Lang muir-Blodgett (LB) technique. It could be shown that, contrary to norm al liposomes, receptor-liposomes strongly adhere to the model membrane detectable by a large shift in the quartz frequency. Variation in lip osome structure and their influence of adhesion could selectively be a nalyzed with this technique. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.