  Cell spreading is investigated at various scales in order to understand
motility of living cells which is essential for a range of physiological
activities in higher organisms as well as in microbes. At a microscopic scale,
it has been seen that actin polymerization at the leading edge of cell membrane
primarily helps the cell to spread depending upon its extra-cellular
environment which influences the polymerization process via some receptors on
the cell membrane. There are some interesting experimental results at
macroscopic scales (cell size) where people have observed various dynamic
phases in terms of spreading rate of cell area adhering to the substrate. In
the present paper we develop a very simple phenomenological model to capture
these dynamic apparent phases of a spreading cell without going into the
microscopic details of actin polymerization.
