Velocities of Mesenchymal Cells May be Ill-Defined

Abstract: The dynamics of single cell migration on flat surfaces is usually modeled by a Langevin-like problem consisting of ballistic motion for short periods and random walk. for long periods. Conversely, recent studies have revealed a previously neglected random motion at very short intervals, what would rule out the possibility of defining the cell instantaneous velocity and a robust measurement procedure. A previous attempt to address this issue considered an anisotropic migration model, which takes into account a polarization orientation along which the velocity is well-defined, and a direction orthogonal to the polarization vector that describes the random walk. Although the numerically and analytically calculated mean square displacement and auto-correlation agree with experimental data for that model, the velocity distribution peaks at zero, which contradicts experimental observations of a constant drift in the polarization direction. Moreover, Potts model simulations indicate that instantaneous velocity cannot be measured for any direction. Here, we consider dynamical equations for cell polarization, which is measurable and introduce a polarization-dependent displacement, circumventing the problem of ill defined instantaneous velocity. Polarization is a well-defined quantity, preserves memory for short intervals, and provides a robust measurement procedure for characterizing cell migration. We consider cell polarization dynamics to follow a modified Langevin equation that yields cell displacement distribution that peaks at positive values, in agreement with experiments and Potts model simulations. Furthermore, displacement autocorrelation functions present two different time scales, improving the agreement between theoretical fits and experiments or simulations.