On the role of metal cations in cellular adhesion: effect on cell surface charge.

An examination has been made of the hypothesis that the role of divalent cations in promoting reaggregation of dissociated cells is principally to reduce the negative electrostatic charge at the cell surface. This hypothesis would suggest that cells in the presence of different divalent cations would reaggregate at identical rates if the concentrations of the different cations were so adjusted that in all cases the cells possess the same charge. This expectation has not been fulfilled. Magnesium ion was most effective in promoting reaggregation, calcium somewhat less so, and strontium and barium had little or no effect. Copyright © 1966 Wiley‐Liss, Inc., A Wiley Compan