Hydration forces involved in cellular interactions.

Abstract

Cellular physical interactions are determinant in many and various biological processes: aggregation, adhesion, segregation, contact inhibition, fusion, etc. A real advance concerning the understanding of cellular interactions from a physical point of view has been performed of late, but a great many problems still remain to be clarified. Thus, DLVO theory extrapolated to cell-cell interactions, is unable to describe cellular interactions at very short distances of separation, where other forces play an important role. A sketch of the original form of DLVO theory, its criticism along with the nature and mechanism of the short range repulsive forces (hydration forces) are presented and discussed.