Quantifying cell-adhesion strength with micropipette manipulation: principle and application

Quantifying cell-adhesion strength is of great importance in biology and medicine. Cell-adhesion strength can be characterized by separating two adherent cells and determining the force required to do so, or by measuring the lifetime of a receptor-ligand bond that mediates cell adhesion. To this end, several micropipette-based experimental techniques that operate at both cellular and molecular levels have been developed over the past few decades. In this review, we provide an overview of three of these techniques, i.e., the step-pressure technique (SPT), the biomembrane-force probe (BFP), and the micropipette-aspiration technique (MAT). More detailed discussion will be given about the requirements and applications of the MAT.