The impact of hyperglycemia on adhesion between endothelial and cancer cells revealed by single-cell force spectroscopy.

The impact of hyperglycemia on adhesion between lung carcinoma cells (A549) and pulmonary human aorta endothelial cells (PHAEC) was studied using the single-cell force spectroscopy. Cancer cells were immobilized on a tipless Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) cantilever and a single layer of endothelial cells was prepared on a glass slide. The measured force-distance curves provided information about the detachment force and about the frequency of specific ligand-receptor rupture events. Measurements were performed for different times of short term (up to 2 h) and prolonged hyperglycemia (3 h - 24 h). Single-cell force results were correlated with the expression of cell adhesion molecules (intercellular adhesion molecule, P-selectin) and with the length and density of the PHAECs glycocalyx layer, which were measured by AFM nanoindentation. For short-term hyperglycemia, we observed a statistically significant increase of the adhesion parameters that was accompanied by an increase of the glycocalyx length and expression of P-selectin. Removal of hyaluronic acid from PHAECs glycocalyx significantly decreased the adhesion parameters, which indicates that hyaluronic acid has a strong impact on adhesion in A549/PHAEC system in short term of hyperglycemia. For prolonged hyperglycemia, the most significant increase of adhesion parameters was observed for 24 hours and this phenomenon correlated with the expression of adhesion molecules and a decrease of the glycocalyx length. Taking together, presented data indicate that both mechanical and structural properties of the endothelial glycocalyx strongly modulate the adhesion in the A549/PHAEC system.