Abstract
A continuum model was proposed to simulate a biological cell adhering to a substrate surface domain with selectively coated ligands. Cell adhesion was modeled by a traction-separation law depending on the receptor-ligand distance and their densities. It was found that the obtained spreading patterns are consistent with published experimental data and that adhesion requires a nonuniform distribution of receptors at the spreading front with convex fronts requiring a Much higher receptor density than concave fronts. Adhesion strength was also found to be more influential than adhesion energy on the spreading kinetics. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 91A: 806-813, 2009