Morphomigrational description as a new approach connecting cell's migration with its morphology

Abstract

Abstract The examination of morphology and migration of cells plays substantial role in understanding the cellular behaviour, being described by plethora of quantitative parameters and models. These descriptions, however, treat cell migration and morphology as independent properties of temporal cell state, while not taking into account their strong interdependence in adherent cells. Here we present the new and simple mathematical parameter called signed morphomigrational angle (sMM angle) that links cell geometry with translocation of cell centroid, considering them as one morphomigrational behaviour. The sMM angle combined with pre-existing quantitative parameters enabled us to build a new tool called morphomigrational description, used to assign the numerical values to several cellular behaviours. Thus, the cellular activities that until now were characterized using verbal description or by complex mathematical models, are described here by a set of numbers. Our tool can be further used in automatic analysis of cell populations as well as in studies focused on cellular response to environmental directional signals.