When growing cells in a 2D substrate (flat), do the adhesions occur only at the edges, or distributed along the whole bottom surface? If so, how?
How far is (on average) the cell membrane from the substrate (at non-attachment points, if any)
What happens to the receptors and other molecules which are at the bottom membrane? Are they still active?
Thank you!
Focal adhesion points happen everywhere on the bottom membrane of attached cell. The membrane is pretty much lying on the surface and is inaccessible to media, nutrients etc. This is a big problem for some cells, such as MDCK because due to these phenomena they cannot absorb nutrients from their basal membrane and you need to grow them on filters instead. I suppose receptors etc. are inaccessible too.
Yulia Panina , thank you for the answer! i try to grow cells on structured surfaces and i was trying to imagine how the cell attaches to them, and possible membrane bending and deformation
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