Migratory activity of human glioma cell lines in vitro assessed by continuous single cell observation

A new migration assay, the time-lapse individual cell migration assay (TIM- assay), was developed, which allows the observation of cells over 24 h unde r controlled conditions. Using this technique, the migratory behavior of 8 human glioblastoma cell lines in vitro was studied. Special features are si multaneous documentation of migratory parameters of individual cells, i.e., migration velocities and migration paths of individual cells. Migration ve locity for cell populations of the same cell line ranged from 0 to 24 mum/h . The migration paths were examined for being directional. Two thirds of al l cells showed directional migration. Migration paths were further classifi ed according to visual judgements for being linear, oscillating or mixed. T he migration index had a mean of 91%. The presented TIM-assay allows the as sessment of several new parameters, that may be useful to identify subgroup s of gliomas with different biological characteristics.