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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 17.2: Poster
Mittwoch, 28. März 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A
Tracking and Simulation of Human T-Cells' Motility — •Marc Neef1, Hélène Lyrmann2, Carsten Kummerow2, Markus Hoth2, and Karsten Kruse1 — 1Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66041 Saarbrücken — 2Biophysik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66421 Homburg
As a part of cell-mediated immunity, killer T-cells detect infected or cancerous cells and trigger their programmed cell death. It has been shown, that T-cells perform an active, self-propelled random motion. However, the characteristics of this motion on large scales are unknown. Since the effectiveness of the immune response depends on how many defect cells can be eliminated within a certain period of time, we investigate the search mechanism of killer T-cells. To this end, we observe primary human T-cells under different conditions by light microscopy and analyse the motion using tracking algorithms and statistic methods. To analyse the data, we use a simple phenomenological stochastic model, where the motion of a single cell is caused by active forces of several pseudopodia. Comparing experimental and simulated data, we connect macroscopic parameters like motility and persistence of the cells' motion to microscopic variables like the (mean) number of active pseudopodia or the duration of their activity, and we determine how these values change under external signals.