Affiliations: [a] Laboratory of Experimental Biology, Department of Anatomy, University of Göteborg, S-413 90 Göteborg, Sweden | [b] Nobelpharma AB, Göteborg, Sweden | [c] Experimentalavd, Malmö Allmänna Sjukhus, Malmö, Sweden
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: M. Braide, Department of Anatomy, University of Goteborg, Medicinaregatan 3, S-413 90 Göteborg, Sweden; Tel.: +46-31-7733310, Fax: +46-31-7733312
Abstract: The Boyden chamber technique for chemotaxis uses a mesh filter that constitutes a matrix for cell locomotion and, at the same time, creates a local restriction for convective fluid movements that allows the establishment of a diffusive concentration gradient of chemotactic substance in the filter. In the present study, the Boyden chamber was modified by the introduction of a filter sandwich that allowed cell migration both upwards and downwards and by the use of a fluid density gradient controlling cell buoyancy and mechanically supporting a movable chemotactic gradient. This method was used to study chemotaxis and random migration of human granulocytes under the influence of gravitational forces and movable gradients of f-MLP. The results show that gravity affected cell motion significantly during random migration but not during chemotaxis. The rate of chemotactic migration was dependent on the steepness of the spatio-temporal f-MLP gradients. A stationary spatial gradient produced less migration than a gradient that was slowly moved through the filter sandwich in a direction opposite to that of the cell migration. The presence of f-MLP at constant concentration caused a minor, statistically insignificant, increase of the rate of random migration.
