Athanasiou, Kyriacos A.2009-06-042009-06-042001Huang, Wei. "Temporal effects of cell adhesion on the mechanical characteristics of the single chondrocyte." (2001) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/17511">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/17511</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/17511Cell adhesion to material surfaces is a fundamental phenomenon in tissue response to implanted devices, and an important consideration in tissue engineering. The first objective of this study was to measure the mechanical adhesiveness characteristics of rabbit articular chondrocytes as a function of seeding time to provide further understanding of the cell adhesion process. The second objective was to quantify the tether formation force and tether stiffness as a function of seeding time. With increasing time of seeding up to 6 hours, chondrocytes exhibited increasing mechanical adhesiveness, tether formation force and tether stiffness, as measured using the cytodetacher and optical tweezers system. Concomitantly, cell contact area and cell height, as measured using inverted microscope and confocal imaging, were found to increase and decrease respectively.44 p.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.Cell biologyThesisTHESIS BIOENG. 2002 HUANG