title: An agarose spot chemotaxis assay for chemokine receptor antagonists.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chemokines are important players in directing the migration of cancer cells as part of the metastatic process. The aim of this study is to develop an easy-to-perform, reliable, and inexpensive assay for rapid analysis of anti-chemotactic activity of chemokine antagonists under a number of experimental conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  An agarose spot containing the chemokine chemoattractant is applied to a glass petri dish. Live cells in a media, both with and without a chemokine antagonist, are added to the dish and, following cell adhesion, the migration under the agarose spot is observed and analysed by microscopy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the absence of CXCL12 in the agarose, no migration under the agarose spot is detected. In the presence of CXCL12, significant migration under the agarose spot is observed which can be retarded if a neutralising monoclonal antibody or a small molecule antagonist is added to the media.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This experimental configuration is a reliable, inexpensive and easy-to-perform chemotaxis assay, which enables assessment of the activity of CXCR4 antagonists.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vinader
authors.forename: Yousef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Al-Saraireh
authors.forename: Helen L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Wiggins
authors.forename: Joshua Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Rappoport
authors.forename: Steve D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Shnyder
authors.forename: Laurence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Kamyar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Afarinkia
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000276:immunology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000276:immunology; D054377:Chemokine CXCL12 / Q000276:immunology*; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007158:Immunologic Techniques; D019707:Receptors, Chemokine / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000276:immunology; D012685:Sepharose / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D054377:Chemokine CXCL12; D019707:Receptors, Chemokine; D012685:Sepharose