Interactive image processing system for assessment of cell movement

The study of cancer cell motility is considered to be important in understa nding cancer metastasis. The movement behaviour of cells within clustered c ell colonies is of particular interest. Changes in cell movement, area and velocity can be an indicator of cell spreading. The aim of the study is to develop and apply a computerised interactive image processing system to qua ntify the movement of cells within cell clusters. A semi-automatic boundary description method based on two-dimensional rendering is devised. The syst em is later combined with image-processing methods that facilitate the relo cation of the cell boundary over time; this forms a new approach to assessi ng cell movement. These methods are incorporated into a software system, en abling an interactive procedure to define and monitor the movement of singl e cells in cell clusters from digitised microscope images. Validation of th e method shows a maximum error of 10% in defining the area through a cubic spline interpolation. The system is applied to analyse the movement and are a of HT115 human colon cancer cells. The system provides tools for the anal ysis of movement, area and velocity of single cells in cancer cell colonies and may thus be of value in further understanding cancer cell motility.