Automated quantitative analysis of epithelial cell scatter.

ABSTRACT: Epithelial cell scatter is a well-known in vitro model for the study of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Scatter recapitulates many of the events that occur during EMT, including the dissociation of multicellular structures and increased cell motility.Because it has been implicated in tumor invasion and metastasis,much effort has been made to identify the molecular signals that regulate EMT. To better understand the quantitative contributions of these signals, we have developed metrics that quantitatively describe multiple aspects of cell scatter. One metric (cluster size)quantifies the disruption of intercellular adhesions while a second metric (nearest-neighbor distance) quantifies cell dispersion. We demonstrate that these metrics delineate the effects of individual cues and det

SUBMITTER: Pope MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2634994 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr-May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature