On the Chemical Bonds between Animal Cells. A Mechanism for Type-Specific Association

Abstract

It is proposed that the surface of tissue cells is highly ordered in the tangential direction. This order is reflected in a lattice arrangement of certain ionized acidic groups which bind Ca or Mg. The lattice spacings are peculiar to specific cell types at specific stages in their differentiation, and wide enough to preclude the formation of slightly soluble Ca or Mg salts involving two acidic groups on the same cell surface. It is suggested that the binding of cell to cell is achieved through the formation of slightly soluble Ca or Mg salts between the surfaces of adjacent cells, and that the strength of intercellular binding is consequently dependent upon the relative dimensions of the lattices involved. On the basis of this model the phenomena of cell dissociation, reaggregation, graded affinities, sorting out of heterogeneous cell populations, and preferential location of reconstituted tissues within aggregates may be explained.