Correlation between cell migration and reactive oxygen species under electric field stimulation.
Cell migration is an essential process involved in the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. Electric fields (EFs) are one of the many physical and chemical factors known to affect cell migration, a phenomenon termed electrotaxis or galvanotaxis. In this paper, a microfluidics chip was developed to study the migration of cells under different electrical and chemical stimuli. This chip is capable of providing four different strengths of EFs in combination with two different chemicals via one simple set of agar salt bridges and Ag/AgCl electrodes. NIH 3T3 fibroblasts were seeded inside this chip to study their migration and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in response to different EF strengths and the presence of β-lapachone. We found that both the EF and β-lapachone level increased the cell migration rate and the production of ROS in an EF-strength-dependent manner. A strong linear correlation between the cell migration rate and the amount of intracellular ROS suggests that ROS are an intermediate product by which EF and β-lapachone enhance cell migration. Moreover, an anti-oxidant, α-tocopherol, was found to quench the production of ROS, resulting in a decrease in the migration rate.
Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
Shang-Ying
SY
Wu
Research Center for Applied Sciences , Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
Hsien-San
HS
Hou
Department of Physics, Fu-Jen Catholic University , New Taipei City 24205, Taiwan.
Yung-Shin
YS
Sun
Research Center for Applied Sciences , Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
Ji-Yen
JY
Cheng
Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
Kai-Yin
KY
Lo