3.1.2 Scratch wound assay for endothelial cell migration
The scratch wound test is a straight forward way to measure EC
migration. To depict an artificial wound, a confluent monolayer of ECs
is mechanically scratched in a specific location of the well, using a
cell scraping instrument or a p200 tip(Staton et al., 2009). Recently, a
more sophisticated microfluidic version of the scratch wound test was
created to look into how shear stress affects cell migration. This
version accurately creates the fake wound with a laminar flow of trypsin
solution(Wong and Gotlieb, n.d.).The rate and extent of EC migration
from the remaining monolayer into the ”wound area” after the formation
of a scratch wound are observed and measured using image processing.
This assay allows for simple 2D horizontal X-Y plane monitoring of the
migration rate. However, it has been proven that cell migration in this
model also involves cell spreading and proliferation, leading to an
inaccurate determination of the net migration effect.