title: A Wound-Healing Assay Based on Ultraviolet Light Ablation.
abstract: Collective cell migration plays important roles in many physiological processes such as embryonic development, tissue repair, and angiogenesis. A "wound" occurs when epithelial cells are lost and/or damaged due to some external factors, and collective cell migration takes place in the following wound-healing process. To study this cellular behavior, various kinds of wound-healing assays are developed. In these assays, a "wound," or a "cell-free region," is created in a cell monolayer mechanically, chemically, optically, or electrically. These assays are useful tools in studying the effects of certain physical or chemical stimuli on the wound-healing process. Most of these methods have disadvantages such as creating wounds of different sizes or shapes, yielding batch-to-batch variation, and damaging the coating of the cell culture surface. In this study, we used ultraviolet (UV) lights to selectively kill cells and create a wound out of a cell monolayer. A comparison between the current assay and the traditional scratch assay was made, indicating that these two methods resulted in similar wound-healing rates. The advantages of this UV-created wound-healing assay include fast and easy procedure, high throughput, and no direct contact to cells.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shang-Ying
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Physics, Fu-Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yung-Shin
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: 3 Graduate Institute of Food Science Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuan-Chen
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kai-Yin
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014945:Wound Healing
keywords: collective cell migration; ultraviolet light; wound-healing assay