Correlating three-dimensional cell migration to substratum adhesiveness

Adhesion of cells to the substratum is critical for cell migration. The authors have developed a three-dimensional migration assay consisting of collagen covalently coupled with RGD peptides to directly measure cell migration as a function of substratum adhesiveness. The random motility coefficient, a measure of the rate of cell dispersion by random migration, was found to have a biphasic dependence on increasing adhesiveness. To further understand the different modes of cell motility observed, a mechanistic model has been developed which predicts stochastic multi-dimensional cell migration as a function of receptor-ligand binding kinetics and pseudopod protrusion and retraction dynamics. Model predictions agree with the experimental results.