Cell adhesion protein decreases cell motion: Statistical characterization of locomotion activity

This manuscript uses a statistical-mechanical approach to study the effect of the adhesion, caused by the modifier of cell adhesion (MOCA) protein on cell locomotion. The MOCA protein regulates cell–cell adhesion, and we explore its potential role in cell movement. We present a series of statistical descriptions to characterize cell movement, and find that MOCA affects the statistical scenario of cell locomotion. In particular, MOCA enhances the tendency of joint motion and decreases overall cell motion. Furthermore, we observe that non-interacting cells that express the MOCA protein have smaller mean velocities than interacting cells, and seem to exhibit normal diffusion. In contrast, control cells exhibit anomalous diffusion independent of interactions with other cells. Furthermore, we observe that in many cases the velocity distribution tails are longer than those predicted by the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, indicating that cell movement is more complex than molecules.