Abstract:

Objective: To study the motion characteristics of gastric cancer cells in liquid culture environment using glassy dynamics analysis. Methods: Lentiviral vector carrying green fluorescent protein (GFP) was transfected into gastric cancer cells. Trajectories of gastric cancer cells along X, Y, and Z axis in the liquid environment were recorded at real time under the laser scanning confocal microscope. Glassy dynamics analysis was used to analyze the velocity distribution, mean square displacements (MSD) of gastric cells, and function χ₄ (Δt) of self-overlap function Q on four-point susceptibi-lity was established. Results: Observation under inverted fluorescence microscope showed that cell transfection efficiency was 100%. Laser con-focal microscopy showed that cell velocity distribution presented the Gaussian distribution. With the increase of cell density, self-diffusion constant D in XY plane by MSD calculation decreased and glassy dynamics of cells aggravated by function χ₄. Conclusions: The motion of gastric cancer cells is influenced by cell density in the liquid environment and presenting the characteristics of glassy dynamics.

Key words: Gastric cancer, Cell motion, Glassy dynamics