Cell adhesion through clustered ligand on fluid supported lipid bilayers.

The quartz crystal microbalance technique with dissipation monitoring and the complementary optical microscopy technique were used for monitoring cell adhesion on an RGD-functionalized supported lipid bilayer. A critical interligand RGD spacing of nearly 80 nm was estimated for cell adhesion when an RGD spacing of 10 nm was necessary to observe flattened cells on a fluid surface.