and fluid nature of these gradients, a deeper understanding of the in vivo condition is difficult to ascertain. Tumor Cells and Haptotaxis A characteristic of many cancers is the ability to move throughout the body. These are malignant cells, and pose a serious threat to the health of an individual. It has been indicated that haptotaxis plays a role in the ability of malignant cells to metastasize. One factor that was initially found to influence haptotaxis is serum spreading factor, which is present in blood serum and interstitial tissues. The presence of serum spreading factor was shown to influence directed migration along a gradient of substrate molecules in a few types of cancer cells. Another component important in the haptotaxis of tumor cells is MenaINV, which is an actin regulatory protein that becomes increasingly expressed in tumor cells. This actin regulatory protein binds to fibronectin receptors and aids in the haptotactic and chemotactic processes of tumor cells. Pathology Haptotaxis plays a role in several kinds of diseases where the movement or aggregation of cells causes the symptoms. As mentioned before, cancers that are metastatic have the ability to perform haptotaxis in order to spread throughout the body. This ability is not limited to tumor cells. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease marked by fibrosis in lung mesothelial cells. TGF-β1 is a cytokine found in higher concentrations of lungs from patients who have IPF, and induces haptotaxis of pleural mesothelial cells. At the same time, TGF-β1 causes the mesothelial cells to develop into myofibroblasts, which contribute to the symptoms in IPF. The result is that there becomes an aggregation of myofibroblasts in the lungs, which leads to fibrosis of the mesothelial cells. During nephritis, VCAM-1 is expressed in higher levels on the tubules of nephrons, which leads to increased leukocyte migration via the gradient established by VCAM-1. It is important to note that this increased expression was not found on the capillary endothelial cells. This migration of leukocytes leads to inflammation and tissue destruction characteristic of an inflammatory response. Immune System Movement of cells is vital for the function of the immune system, and especially for antigen presenting cells. Dendritic cells (one of the main antigen presenting cells in the immune system), move towards the lymph nodes after phagocytizing an antigen in order to present the antigen to T cells. Chemokines influence these movements, especially CCL21, which is bound to