Adhesive dynamics of cells plays a critical role in determining different biophysical processes orchestrating health and disease in the living systems. While the rolling of cells on functionalized substrates having similitude with biophysical pathways appears to be extensively discussed in the literature, the effect of an external stimulus in the form of electric field on the same remains underemphasized. Here, we bring out the interplay of fluid shear and electric field on the rolling dynamics of adhesive cells in biofunctionalized micro-confinements. Our experimental results portray that an electric field, even restricted to low strengths within the physiologically relevant regimes, can significantly influence the cell adhesion dynamics. We quantify the electric field-mediated adhesive dynamics of the cells in terms of two key parameters, namely, the voltage-altered rolling velocity and the frequency of adhesion. The effect of the directionality of the electric field with respect to the flow direction is also analysed by studying cellular migration with electrical effects acting both along and against the flow. Our experiment, on one hand, demonstrates the importance of collagen functionalization on the adhesive dynamics of cells through micro channels, while on the other hand, it reveals how the presence of an axial electric field can lead to significant alteration in the kinetic rate of bond breakage, thereby modifying the degree of cell-substrate adhesion and quantified in terms of the adhesion frequency of the cells. Proceeding further forward, we offer a simple theoretical explanation towards deriving the kinetics of cellular bonding in the presence of an electric field, which corroborates favourably with our experimental outcome.  These findings are likely to offer fundamental insights on the possibilities of local control of cellular adhesion via electric field mediated interactions, bearing critical implications in a wide variety of medical conditions ranging from wound healing to cancer metastasis.

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Laha, S., Dhar, D., Adak, M., Bandopadhyay, A., Das, S., Chatterjee, J., & Chakraborty, S. (2024). Electric field-mediated adhesive dynamics of cells inside bio-functionalised microchannels offers important cues for active control of cell-substrate adhesion. Soft Matter. (Accepted)

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An Indian patent has been filed based on the above study, Application number : 202231051636, Sampad Laha and Suman Chakraborty (2022)