Can spontaneous cell movements be modelled as Lévy walks?

Spontaneous cell movement is a random motion that takes place in the absence of external guiding stimuli. The spontaneous movements of HaCaT and NHDF cells (cells of the epidermis) are well represented as continuous Markovian processes driven by multiplicative noise [D. Selmeczi, S. Mosler, P.H. Hagedorn, N.B. Larsen, H. Flyvbjerg, Biophysical Journal 89 (2005) 912]. Model components are, however, ad hoc as they are inspired by fits to experimental data. As a consequence, model agreement with experimental data does not add much to our understanding of spontaneous movements of these cells beyond demonstrating that they can be modelled phenomenologically. Here it is noted that a slight re-parameterization and re-interpretation of the driving noise leads to the model of Lubashevsky et al. (2009) [I. Lubashevsky, R. Friedrich, A. Heuer, Physical Review E 79 (2009) 011110] that realises Lévy walks as Markovian stochastic processes. This brings forth new biological insight as Lévy walks are advantageous when searching in the absence of external stimuli and without knowledge of the target distribution, as may be the case with cells of the epidermis that form new tissue by locating and then attaching on to one another. The Hänggi–Klimontovich interpretation of the driving noise in the model of Lubashevsky et al. (2009) and Cauchy distributions of predicted velocities do, however, appear problematic, even unphysical. Here it is shown that these are perceived rather than actual difficulties. Intermittent stop-start motions of the kind displayed by some cells and protozoan are found to underlie the formulation of the model of Lubashevsky et al. (2009) and the velocities of starved Dictyostelium discoideum (a unicellular organism) are found to be Cauchy distributed to a good approximation. It is therefore suggested that the model of Lubashevsky et al. (2009) can describe the spontaneous movements of some cells, and that some cells have spontaneous movement patterns that can be approximated by Lévy walks, as first proposed by Schuster and Levandowsky (1996) [F.L. Schuster, M. Levandowsky, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 43 (1996) 150].