R [3?] and disease [6,7]. In vitro cell migration assays are routinely used

R [3?] and disease [6,7]. In vitro cell migration assays are routinely used to assess the migration potential of different cell types [8,9] as well as assessing the potential for different types of treatment strategies aimed at regulating cell migration [10?2,16]. Currently, many studies report results from cell migration assays without specifying the details of how the assays are measured or interpreted [27?1]. In an attempt to address this limitation we compare three different image processing techniques to quantify the migration rate of cells in a two-dimensional barrier assay [17]. Our visual interpretation of the images from the barrier assaysSC-1 indicate that the position of the leading edge of the Ion, in human genetic studies, IRAK-M has also been associated with spreading population is relatively sharp and well-defined at the beginning of the assay. However, we observe that the leading edge of the spreading cell population becomes increasingly diffuse and less well-defined at later times as the cell population spreads across the substrate. We quantify the rate of cell migration using a standard measure, given by equation (1), describing how the area enclosed by the leading edge of the spreading population increases with time. To explore how such a standard measure of cell migration depends on the edge detection methods we calculate the location of the leading edge of the spreading population using three different image processing tools. In summary, our results indicate that estimates of the cell migration rate are very sensitive to the details of the image processing tools and we show that our estimates of the cell migration rate can vary by as much as 25 for the same data set. These differences depend on the choice of threshold used in the edge detection technique. Our measurements indicate that the concept of the area enclosed by the leading edge is poorly defined and we suggest that one way to overcome these difficulties is to use a direct measurement of cell density. For example, a nuclear stain could be used to reveal the locations of individual cells within the spreading population [17]. In addition to comparing estimates of cell migration using different image processing techniques, we also provide a physical interpretation of the results from the manual edge detectionSensitivity of Edge Detection Methodstechnique by using a mathematical model of the cell spreading process. We use a previously-parameterised [17] mathematical model to describe the spatial and temporal variation in cell density associated with the barrier assays and we compare our modelling results with the edge detection results. For all images processed by the manual edge detection technique, we identified a range of Sobel threshold values, from Smin to Smax , that could be used to produce a reasonable estimate of the location of the leading edge of the spreading populations. We scaled these values so that they corresponded with a range of cell density contours, from cmin to cmax , corresponding to the minimum and maximum contours of the relevant solution of equation (2). Our results indicate that varying the threshold S corresponds to a consistent variation in the spatial distribution of cell density in the spreading cell population. In particular, the manual edge detection technique identifies the leading edge of the population within a range of the cell density of approximately 1-5 of the maximum packing density. The close match between the position of the leading edge as a function of the Sobel threshold and the soluti.R [3?] and disease [6,7]. In vitro cell migration assays are routinely used to assess the migration potential of different cell types [8,9] as well as assessing the potential for different types of treatment strategies aimed at regulating cell migration [10?2,16]. Currently, many studies report results from cell migration assays without specifying the details of how the assays are measured or interpreted [27?1]. In an attempt to address this limitation we compare three different image processing techniques to quantify the migration rate of cells in a two-dimensional barrier assay [17]. Our visual interpretation of the images from the barrier assaysindicate that the position of the leading edge of the spreading population is relatively sharp and well-defined at the beginning of the assay. However, we observe that the leading edge of the spreading cell population becomes increasingly diffuse and less well-defined at later times as the cell population spreads across the substrate. We quantify the rate of cell migration using a standard measure, given by equation (1), describing how the area enclosed by the leading edge of the spreading population increases with time. To explore how such a standard measure of cell migration depends on the edge detection methods we calculate the location of the leading edge of the spreading population using three different image processing tools. In summary, our results indicate that estimates of the cell migration rate are very sensitive to the details of the image processing tools and we show that our estimates of the cell migration rate can vary by as much as 25 for the same data set. These differences depend on the choice of threshold used in the edge detection technique. Our measurements indicate that the concept of the area enclosed by the leading edge is poorly defined and we suggest that one way to overcome these difficulties is to use a direct measurement of cell density. For example, a nuclear stain could be used to reveal the locations of individual cells within the spreading population [17]. In addition to comparing estimates of cell migration using different image processing techniques, we also provide a physical interpretation of the results from the manual edge detectionSensitivity of Edge Detection Methodstechnique by using a mathematical model of the cell spreading process. We use a previously-parameterised [17] mathematical model to describe the spatial and temporal variation in cell density associated with the barrier assays and we compare our modelling results with the edge detection results. For all images processed by the manual edge detection technique, we identified a range of Sobel threshold values, from Smin to Smax , that could be used to produce a reasonable estimate of the location of the leading edge of the spreading populations. We scaled these values so that they corresponded with a range of cell density contours, from cmin to cmax , corresponding to the minimum and maximum contours of the relevant solution of equation (2). Our results indicate that varying the threshold S corresponds to a consistent variation in the spatial distribution of cell density in the spreading cell population. In particular, the manual edge detection technique identifies the leading edge of the population within a range of the cell density of approximately 1-5 of the maximum packing density. The close match between the position of the leading edge as a function of the Sobel threshold and the soluti.