Studies of assay conditions for macrophage migration from an agarose droplet.

The agarose microdroplet method is a relatively simple and economic technique to determine migration inhibition of leukocytes or macrophages in vitro. In the present study, further cultural and technical requirements of this method for the determination of macrophage migration inhibition have been defined: influence of macrophage handling before the assay, kinetics of migration and dependence on the pH of the medium. Considering defined conditions, the agarose microdoplet assay gives highly reliable and reproducible results. In comparative experiments, it proved to be as sensitive and valid as the capillary tube technique.