Growth regulation of lens epithelial cells. Chemically-modified sepharose as a suitable substratum for studying cell-substratum interactions.

Suitable substrata for studying cell-substratum interactions were prepared by melting of unsubstituted and substituted agarose beads (Sepharose). The reductive alkylation procedure proved to be useful in introducing various ligands into the gel matrix. The resulting bonds remained stable during sterilisation and melting. The introduction of charges into the gel matrix facilitated cell adhesion to the substratum. But only positively-charged agarose substrata were as effective as glass surfaces in supporting cell attachment. The correlation found between cell attachment and the stimulation of DNA synthesis demonstrates that lens epithelial cells are strongly anchorage dependent.