Cell migration is movement of a biological cell relative to its surroundings. In crawling cells, contact forces with a substrate can propel the cell, while chemotaxis can bias its direction in response to a chemical gradient.
Displacement of cells with bulk tissue motion. Subtracting the surrounding flow is needed to distinguish autonomous crawling from passive transport.
Contact guidance is a directional influence of physical structures, such as aligned fibres or grooves, on cell migration. It can organize trajectories without an imposed soluble concentration gradient.
Haptotaxis is directed cell migration along spatial variation of an immobilized adhesive or guidance cue. It differs from guidance by a soluble chemoattractant field.
Durotaxis is biased cell migration associated with spatial variation in substrate stiffness. Distinguish a directional bias from changes in speed, attachment or survival on different substrates.
Chemokinesis is a change in motility associated with a chemical stimulus without a directional bias toward or away from its source. Measure speed and persistence separately from directional chemotaxis.
A membrane bleb is a rounded protrusion formed when the cell membrane locally detaches from or loses support by the cell cortex. Pressure expands the initially cortex-poor region; cortical reassembly can then stabilize or retract it.
A lamellipodium is a broad, thin, actin-rich protrusion at a cell edge. Actin polymerization pushes the cell membrane, but net advance also depends on mechanical coupling to the environment.
In collective cell migration, neighbouring biological cells move with coordinated trajectories while retaining interactions that influence their motion. Mechanical coupling, contact-dependent signals and soluble cues can each contribute. A coherent group need not consist of identically behaving cells: leaders and followers may perform different roles.
A quantitative measure of coordinated cell velocities. A common external force can create correlation without proving direct cell-to-cell transmission of guidance.
Contact inhibition of locomotion is a contact-triggered change of protrusions and movement direction. It is distinct from contact inhibition of proliferation. In neural crest experiments, cell collisions caused protrusion collapse and repolarization; blocking noncanonical Wnt signalling disrupted the response.[ref]
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