Patent ID: 6238874
Filing Date: 2001-05-29
Classification: C12M,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of determining the motile response to a chemotactic agent of a selected type of cell contained in a sample of mixed cell types, comprising the steps of:(i) labeling said selected type of cell, contained in said mixed-cell sample, with a fluorescent compound preferentially binding to said selected type of cell;(ii) establishing a concentration gradient of a chemotactic agent in an assay chamber;(iii) adding said mixed cell sample into said assay chamber proximate to said concentration gradient;(iv) optically scanning a region of said concentration gradient;(v) electronically detecting areas of peak fluorescence representative of an individual cell of said selected type of cell in the sample;(vi) identifying positions of said individual cells of said selected type of cell along the region;(vii) repeating steps (iv) to (vi) to again identify individual cell location within said assay chamber at at least one additional time spaced interval; and(viii) analyzing the positions of individual cells of said selected type of cell to determine the motility of said selected type of cell.