Comparative locomotory behavior of T lymphocytes versus T lymphoma cells on flat and grooved surfaces

Locomotion is a characteristic of many cell types, including malignant cells. It is driven by a combination of interacting factors, one of which is recognized to be the surface microtopography. In this study, an in vitro analysis of cell migration was carried out to observe and quantify the differences in locomotion of two types of lymphoid cell on both flat and grooved surfaces. The cells studied were peripheral blood T lymphocytes (PBTL) and a malignant T lymphoma cell line (HUT78). It was found that, on the grooved pattern, the lymphoma HUT78 cells were more diffusive in their migration than the T lymphocyte PBTL cells whereas, on the flat surface, the T lymphocyte PBTL cells had a more diffusive response than the T lymphoma HUT78 cells. It was also found that malignant T lymphoma cells are significantly slower and less diffusive when exposed to a plane substrate than when subjected to a grooved substrate. On the contrary, PBTL cells showed only a moderate drop in cell speed and diffusion on the grooved compared to the flat substrate. PBTL cells did, however, show a general alignment to the direction of the grooves whereas HUT78 did not. Therefore, we have found that the surface topography can influence the motile response of the two different T cell types in different ways, and this can be quantified in terms of motility parameters. This difference may have exploitable applications for cell sorting.