LEGO bricks used as chemotactic chambers: evaluation by a computer-assisted image analysis technique

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Cell Biology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Neutrophil motility is crucial for immune response.
• Conventional methods for assessing neutrophil migration, like Boyden chambers, can be time-consuming and expensive.
• There is a need for rapid, inexpensive, and reproducible microassay techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate LEGO bricks as novel chemotactic chambers for neutrophil motility assays.
• To compare the efficacy of LEGO bricks with conventional Boyden chambers.
• To assess the precision and reliability of LEGO bricks for neutrophil random migration and chemotaxis.

Main Methods:

• LEGO bricks were utilized as chemotactic chambers.
• Neutrophil random motility and chemotaxis were assessed.
• An image-processing workstation with a dedicated algorithm was employed for cell counting and migration analysis.
• A time-response experiment compared LEGO bricks with conventional Boyden chambers.

Main Results:

• LEGO bricks demonstrated identical cell migration distances compared to conventional chambers for both random migration and chemotaxis.
• No interference with neutrophil physiological behavior was observed.
• The kinetics of neutrophil migration, including random (Gaussian pattern) and chemotactic (stimulation peak) patterns, were consistent between LEGO bricks and conventional chambers.

Conclusions:

• LEGO bricks are precise, simple, and cost-effective devices for neutrophil motility assays.
• They require small volumes of reagents and offer built-in triplicate testing.
• LEGO bricks are suitable for diagnostic activities and research investigations in any laboratory setting.