How long do I have to follow the cell migration with time-lapse microscopy?

We recommend observing the cell migration for at least 10 times the cell diameter. This is only a rough estimation, but you get representative trajectories. Shorter trajectories might not be representative, while much longer trajectories do not add more migratory information.

Example: HT-1080 cells are approximately 20–50 µm in diameter and their average speed is ca. 40 µm/hour. This means that after 10 hours, you get representative trajectories for most single cells in that population. In other words, most cells moved about 10 times their diameter.