Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• actin networks and talin into model cells. Keywords: actin network; cell adhesion; giant unilamellar vesicle; integrin; lipid bilayer; synthetic cell; protein reconstitution; talin; Review Introduction Since Hooke first described a biological cell in 1665 tremendous progress has been made in

• incorporation of this protein into liposomes and GUVs to build a biomimetic system that mimics cell adhesion, the formation of a cytoskeleton and spontaneous motion. The first study towards such a synthetic cell model was already performed in 1989 by Cortese et al. They encapsulated actin filaments and actin

• liposomes obtained in the absence of talin. (B) Cup-shaped liposomes observed in the presence of 0.4 mM talin. Image courtesy of K. Takiguchi (unpublished). Acknowledgements We thankfully acknowledge Erich Sackmann for fruitful discussions on synthetic cell systems. This work was supported by an ERC