In vitro motility evaluation of aggregated cancer cells by means of automatic image processing

Background: Set up of an automatic image processing based method that enabl es the motility of in vitro aggregated cells to be evaluated for a number o f hours. Methods: Our biological model included the PC-3 human prostate cancer cell Line growing as a monolayer on the bottom of Falcon plastic dishes containi ng conventional culture media. Our equipment consisted of an incubator, an inverted phase contrast microscope, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) video cam era, and a computer equipped with an image processing software developed in our laboratory. This computer-assisted microscope analysis of aggregated c ells enables global cluster motility to be evaluated. This analysis also en ables the trajectory of each cell to be isolated and parametrized within a given cluster or, indeed, the trajectories of individual cells outside a cl uster. Results: The results show that motility inside a PC-3 cluster is not restri cted to slight motion due to cluster expansion, but rather consists of a ma rked cell movement within the cluster. Conclusions: The proposed equipment enables in vitro aggregated cell motili ty to be studied. This method can, therefore, be used in pharmacological st udies in order to select anti-motility related compounds. The compounds sel ected by the equipment described could then be tested in vivo as potential anti-metastatic. Cytometry 36:1-10, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.