Figure 1

Schematic illustration of haptotaxis and classic under-agarose chemotaxis assay. (a) Optical patterning. The glass surface is incubated with FITC-tagged peptides. A focused laser beam photobleaches the molecules and binds it to the surface. (b) Side and top views of agarose-layered dishes (35 mm ø) with a central well (2 mm ø) to seed neutrophils. Top view of the central well shows the typical designs with multiple field-of-views alternatively imaged using a motorised stage. (Left panel) Substrate-bound gradients (shaded rectangles) are patterned at the bottom of the dish, on the glass surface, overlapping with the central well. (Right panel) A side well is filled with chemoattractant solution and the opposing side well with appropriate vehicle.