ELECTROPHORETICAL STUDY OF CELL-SURFACE PROPERTIES - INFLUENCE OF THE SURFACE-COAT ON THE ELECTRIC-POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION AND ON GENERAL ELECTROKINETIC PROPERTIES OF ANIMAL-CELLS

The electric potential distribution near a cell surface coated with a layer of charged glycoproteins and glycolipids (GPL) was calculated. Some distributions of the fixed charge inside the GPL with respect to the resulting electric potentials were analyzed. It is shown that the cell surface potential is no measure for a cell property such as the total fixed charge. Furthermore, the electrophoretic mobility of a cell with a charged GPL was calculated taking into account the frictional interaction of the liquid flow with the GPL molecules. A fundamental result is that the electrophoretic mobility of the cell does not tend to become zero at high ionic strengths in contrast to the classic case of a smooth particle. A comparison with experimental data allowed the estimation of the thickness of the GPL. The result is in good agreement with the usually assumed thickness of this layer. Thus it follows that cell electrophoretical measurements become very promising for the direct study of the surface properties of the cell. © 1979.