Characterization of anomalous movements of spherical living cells on a silicon dioxide glassy substrate

Myeonggu Son; Gyudo Lee; Jongsang Son; Seungyeop Choi; Youngho Kim; Sei-Young Lee; Young-Ro Yoon; Dae Sung Yoon; Sang Woo Lee

doi:10.1063/1.4905577

Characterization of anomalous movements of spherical living cells on a silicon dioxide glassy substrate

Biomicrofluidics. 2015 Jan 7;9(1):014102. doi: 10.1063/1.4905577. eCollection 2015 Jan.

Authors

Myeonggu Son¹, Gyudo Lee¹, Jongsang Son¹, Seungyeop Choi¹, Youngho Kim¹, Sei-Young Lee¹, Young-Ro Yoon¹, Dae Sung Yoon², Sang Woo Lee¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yonsei University , Wonju 220-710, South Korea.
² School of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University , Seoul 136-703, South Korea.

Abstract

The random walk of spherical living cells on a silicon dioxide glassy substrate was studied experimentally and numerically. This random walk trajectory exhibited erratic dancing, which seemingly obeyed anomalous diffusion (i.e., Lévy-like walk) rather than normal diffusion. Moreover, the angular distribution (-π to π) of the cells' trajectory followed a "U-shaped pattern" in comparison to the uniform distribution seen in the movements of negatively charged polystyrene microspheres. These effects could be attributable to the homeostasis-driven structural resilient character of cells and physical interactions derived from temporarily retained nonspecific binding due to weak forces between the cells and substrates. Our results provide new insights into the stochastic behavior of mesoscopic biological particles with respect to structural properties and physical interactions.