Quasi-dynamic test of in vitro cell migration developed to characterize dividing cells of spontaneously metastasizing rat sarcomas.

A "Quasi-dynamic Test of in vitro Cell Migration" (QTCM) was developed in which the quantitative estimation of migration of dividing cells is based on a comparative evaluation of their dispersion in single-cell-derived colonies after 72 h of clonal growth under standard and test conditions. Expert visual evaluation of microscopic images of cell colonies including estimation of dispersion of cells in the colonies is checked and made more precise by computerized evaluation of digitized outlines of cells in the colonies. Using QTCM, distinctions in the pattern of migration between three neoplastic cell populations differing by their origin and degree of malignancy were found. Although transfer of cells into slightly acid conditions did not always increase the mean value of cell dispersion in the colonies, each cell population was found to include a cell fraction that did manifest considerably greater migration and this fraction was markedly larger in the more malignant cell populations. The results of both types of evaluation, visual and computerized, were in mutual accord, with accuracy being greater on the computer side. Thus, the QTCM proved useful for qualified estimation and/or computer measurement of in vitro migration of dividing cells on a population level.