Cell motility assay

Abstract

An electrooptical method is disclosed for quantifying the motility response of cells to external stimuli, wherein a target cell population (formed as a function of said response) is subsequently optically differentiated by the addition of an optical differentiation solution, and whereby the targeted cell population becomes more or less detectable to an electrooptical reading device. The method can be used to perform chemotactic assays. For such and other purposes, the method can be performed utilizing high throughput robotic automation.

1 . An aqueous masking solution consisting essentially of approximately 1% carbon black and 50% glycerol.  
   
   
       2 . A chemotactic assay kit suitable for analyzing cells, said kit comprising enclosed within a common package: 
 a multi-well array comprising nested or nestable pairs of fluid receptacles, each pair when nested having and upstream zone and a downstream zone separated by a translucent isoporous membrane; and    an aqueous solution comprising carbon black and glycerol.    
   
   
       3 . The chemotactic assay kit of  claim 2 , wherein the concentration of carbon black is at least approximately 0.05% (wt/vol.), and the concentration of glycerol is within the range of approximately 5% to approximately 75% (wt/vol).  
   
   
       4 . The chemotactic assay kit of  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 a cell-labeling solution containing a compound that emits radiation of a predetermined fluorescent bandwidth upon exposure to radiation of a different predetermined exposure bandwidth.    
   
   
       5 . The chemotactic assay kit of  claim 4 , wherein said compound is calcein, a calcein precursor, or a calcein derivative.