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Determination of the surface tension of biological cells using the freezing front technique

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Abstract

The freezing front technique for solid surface tension measurements was used to obtain the surface tensions of glutaraldehyde-fixed human erythrocytes, and fresh human lymphocytes and grnulocytes in aqueous media. The results agree well with the values obtained by other methods and indicate that the freezing front technique is sufficiently sensitive to detect small differences (of the order of 0.1 ergs/cm2) in surface tension. This property, along with a number of applications for which it is uniquely suited makes the freezing front technique an important new approach to the measurement of the surface tensions of biological cells and of small particles in general.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto, M5S 1A4, Toronto, Canada

    J. K. Spelt, D. R. Absolom & A. W. Neumann

  2. Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, M5G 1X8, Toronto, Canada

    D. R. Absolom, W. Zingg & A. W. Neumann

  3. Department of Microbiology, SUNYAB, 14214, Buffalo, New York, USA

    D. R. Absolom & C. J. van Oss

  4. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, M5S 1A4, Toronto, Canada

    W. Zingg & A. W. Neumann

Authors
  1. J. K. Spelt
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  2. D. R. Absolom
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  3. W. Zingg
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  4. C. J. van Oss
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  5. A. W. Neumann
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Spelt, J.K., Absolom, D.R., Zingg, W. et al. Determination of the surface tension of biological cells using the freezing front technique. Cell Biophysics 4, 117–131 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02918308

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02918308

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