Some Features of Physical Forces Between Biological Cell Membranes

Abstract We have applied several advances in the theory of electrostatic and electrodynamic (van der Waals) forces to the problem of biological cell adhesion. Long-range interactions (i.e., those acting across separations much greater than interactomic distances) are strong enough to hold cells together or to artificial substrates. There is a wide range of attractive energies depending on the interacting substances, in particular a ten-fold range with the artificial materials and an energetic specificity between cells of like type to allow a population of mixed cell types to aggregate with likes sticking to likes (as is commonly observed experimentally). The present physical approach can provide a useful logic for designing techniques to probe the cell surface and points out several hitherto neglected aspects of the cell surface germane to the study of cellular adhesion.