The specific locomotive activity of tympanic membrane and cholesteatoma epithelium in tissue culture.

Human tympanic membrane and cholesteatomatous epithelium were grown in tissue culture. Outgrowth from the explants and colonies produced by subculture produced epithelium capable of rapid "en masse" migration. This phenomenon was not found in epithelium grown from other sites. There is a close correlation between the culture characteristics of tympanic membrane and cholesteatoma epithelium and the in vivo activities of these epithelia.