Enzymatic quantification of cell–matrix and cell–cell adhesion

Adhesion assays are powerful tools to investigate the adhesive properties of cells. The quantification of cell adhesion enables determination of the capacity of cells to stick to a target, screening for novel adhesion involved binding molecules, exploration of structure–function relationships of adhesion molecules, evaluation of adhesion targets, and examination of compounds interfering with cell adhesion. Thus, quantification of cell adhesion needs simple and reliable methods that might be applied for both research and diagnostic purposes. This review presents methodological principles of enzymatic approaches for quantification of cell adhesion. In particular, the advantages of exogenous cell labelling with horseradish peroxidase are described.