Methodology for detection of heterogeneity of cell locomotory phenotypes in three-dimensional gels.

A computer-driven, three-dimensional, optical, cell-tracking system was used to quantify the locomotory phenotypes of Mos-11 cells in a collagen gel. Factor analysis was used as a statistical means to make the complex variables generated by the system more tractable to analysis. Heterogeneity in locomotory behavior (two independent locomotory phenotypes) was detected among a sample of 54 cells.