Human lymphocyte migration in vitro: characterization and quantitation of locomotory parameters.

Using a time-lapse cinephotomicrographic technique, the locomotory paths taken by lymphocytes have been shown to satisfy the requirements for a continuous-time Markov chain analysis consisting of four directional states defined by the four quadrants of a Cartesian plane and state 0 in which the cells are stationary. The important parameters characterizing this path motion are the average time (waiting time) that a cell spends in each state and the state transition probabilites which, using the Markov model, allow the computation of the probability of the cells moving in a given direction. Our results show that lymphocytes moving alone on glass exhibit a random migration pattern.