A Novel In Vitro Wound Healing Assay to Evaluate Cell Migration

Summary

Here, we present a protocol to evaluate the effect of peptides on the migration of bronchial epithelial cells. This method allows for the rapid and highly reproducible obtainment of quantitative data on the speed of cell migration and wound closure.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to show a novel method to evaluate the ability of some immunomodulatory molecules, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), to stimulate cell migration. Importantly, cell migration is a rate-limiting event during the wound-healing process to re-establish the integrity and normal function of tissue layers after injury. The advantage of this method over the classical assay, which is based on a manually made scratch in a cell monolayer, is the usage of special silicone culture inserts providing two compartments to create a cell-free pseudo-wound field with a well-defined width (500 μm). In addition, due to an automated image analysis platform, it is possible to rapidly obtain quantitative data on the speed of wound closure and cell migration. More precisely, the effect of two frog-skin AMPs on the migration of bronchial epithelial cells will be shown. Furthermore, pretreatment of these cells with specific inhibitors will provide information on the molecular mechanisms underlying such events.

Introduction

It is largely known that wound healing in animals is a fundamental process to re-establish the integrity and normal function of tissue layers after injury¹. Despite epithelial surfaces exposed to the external environment (e.g., the skin, respiratory, and gastrointestinal tracts) form a protective barrier from physical and chemical insults, the formation of wounds can easily occur, especially after surgery or microbial infections². As an example, colonization of lung tissue by the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, especially in cystic fibrosis (CF) sufferers, leads to damage o....

Protocol

1. Cell Preparation

1. Seed 2.5x10⁶ cells in 10 mL of Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) supplemented with 2 mM glutamine (MEMg), plus 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), antibiotics (0.1 mg/mL of penicillin and streptomycin), and puromycin (0.5 µg/mL for selection and maintenance of the cell line) in a T75 flask. Incubate the flask at 37 °C and 5% CO₂ for 2 days. Before starting the experiment, check the confluence of cells under an inverted microscope.
   NOTE: The cells used for the experiment are immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells transduced with a lentiviral vector conferring resistance to puromycin. They stably express a functio....

Results

This protocol was used to determine the wound healing effect of Esc(1-21) and Esc(1-21)-1c in terms of cell migration activity induced on bronchial epithelial cells expressing the functional CFTR. In this assay, culture inserts were placed in wells of a 12-well plate, and each compartment was seeded with 35,000 cells in MEMg supplemented with 10% FBS. The cells reached complete confluence within 24 h. Afterwards, a 500 μm gap was generated, and each well was filled with MEMg containing th.......

Discussion

Cell migration is an essential process in many physiological and pathological events including wound healing, embryonic development, and cancer metastasis. The basic procedure to study cell migration in vitro involves: (i) the creation of a cell monolayer, (ii) the production of a pseudo-wound in the confluent layer of cells, (iii) the capture of images at different time intervals until wound closure is reached, and (iv) the analysis of the image sequence in order to quantify the migration speed of the chosen ce.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Minimum essential medium (MEM)	Euroclone	ECB2071L	Warm in 37 °C water bath before use
Glutamine	Euroclone	ECB3000D
Heat inactivated Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)	Euroclone	ECS0180DH
Penicillin and Streptomycin	Euroclone	ECB3001D
Puromycin	Sigma-Aldrich	P8833
Trypsin/EDTA 1X in PBS	Euroclone	ECB3052D	Warm at room temperature before use
DPBS without calcium and magnesium (CMF-PBS)	Sigma-Aldrich	D8537
DPBS with calcium and magnesium (PBS)	Sigma-Aldrich	D8662
Ibidi Culture-Insert 2 well	Ibidi	80209
Wimasis Image Analysis	Ibidi	30002
PRISM software	GraphPad	version 6.0