A 3 D culture model and computer - assisted videomicroscopy for analyzing the migratory behavior of non invasive and invasive bronchial epithelial cells

To date, most of the studies in the field of cell migration were applied to two dimensional models. To mimic the three dimensional (3D) conditions similar to those observed in vivo during tumor invasion, we developed a 3D model of cell migration in which cells were embedded in a collagen I matrix placed in a double compartment chamber. Using time lapse videomicroscopy and interactive cell tracking in a four dimensional data set, we determined the cell trajectories and their migration kinetics. We compared the 2D and 3D migratory behavior of a non invasive cell line (16HBE) to the migratory behavior of an invasive cell line (BZR). Our results show that the 3D migration kinetics of the non invasive cell line was lower than the migration kinetics of the invasive cell line. At the opposite, in 2D, no significant difference was observed between the two cell lines. To validate our 3D model, we further investigated the effect of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), a promoter of tumor cell motility and invasion on the non invasive cell line (16HBE). EGF increased significantly the migration kinetics of the non invasive cell line. Our results show that the 3D model of cell migration allows us to differentiate the migratory behavior of invasive and non invasive cells, and that such a model can help in the development of molecular-targeted therapy as it approaches the in vivo conditions.