Carbohydrate-carbohydrate recognition promotes cell adhesion

摘要

Recently, carbohydate-carbohydrate recognition has emerged as a new type of interaction in cell adhesion processes. One of these carbohydrates, the Lewisx determinant (Lex),-(ias been shown to be involved in murine embryogenesis. Here we confirm the existence of this^pecific interaction by measuring the adhesion between giant vesicles functionalised with synthetic Lex bearing lipids providing to the Lexdeterminent a high orientationai freedom. This wa> obtained by micropipette aspiration and contact angle measurements. By using a simple model involving the several contributions to the adhesion free energy, specific and non specific interactions could be separated and quantified. In a second step, using natural Lex bearing sphingolipids, we could underscore the high sensitivity of Lex-Lex recognition to molecular structure and prove that the possible orientations provided by the natural Le bearing molecules not only allow but strongly favor Lex-Lex recognition.