1,720,977 research outputs found
The wound healing assay revisited: A transport phenomena approach
No full textThe Wound Healing (WH) assay is one of the most popular methods for the analysis of cell migration in vitro, widely used to investigate physiological and pathological processes. Several experimental factors of difficult control, such as variation of cell density, hinder a reliable and reproducible application of this assay. We investigate the effect of cell density (from very low values to complete surface occupation) on WH assays on human fibrosarcoma cells, by using in vitro time-lapse microscopy. We found that wound closure velocity is linear with cell density, and explained this dependence by analyzing wound closure as a diffusion-reaction process, according to available models. This finding leads to a simple scaling of the experimental data to account for cell density differences, obtaining a significant improvement in the quantitative assessment of results. We also suggest a simple way to evaluate whether cell motility or proliferation drive the process, based on a non-dimensional parameter
Analisi della Migrazione e Proliferazione Cellulare Mediante Microscopia Time Lapse in Vitro
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Investigation of cell dynamics in vitro by time lapse microscopy and image analysis
No full textPharmacological research is continuously working on the development of new drugs. This research
typically starts from the formulation of new molecules that are first investigated at the cell scale, finally is
completed with clinical trials. Investigation on the cell scale requires simple, reproducible and reliable
assays, able to simulate physiological conditions in the lab.
A wide range of biological processes, such as angiogenesis, inflammation, tissue regeneration, tumour
growth and invasion, are strongly linked to cell proliferation and migration mechanisms that govern the
dynamic evolution of both individual cells and cell aggregates.
In this work we present an experimental methodology for the quantitative investigation of cell dynamics in
vitro by live imaging of biological soft matter. Cell motility is observed by means of a Time Lapse
Microscopy workstation, consisting of a motorized video-microscope equipped with an incubating system,
and quantified by image analysis techniques. We report some preliminary experimental results relative to
the migration of a tumour cell line both in random condition and in presence of an external stimulus, such
as a chemical concentration gradient. The ultimate goal of this research is the development of a standard
assay to be used as a test for drug efficiency, suitable for routine application in the pharmaceutical
research
Evaluation of the use of health care services for non-communicable disease and prevention by children and adolescents in south Italy
Full text linkBackground: The objectives of this investigation are to evaluate the use of health care services for non-communicable disease and prevention by children and adolescents and to identify the factors linked to the use of health care services. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted between December 2014 and January 2015 among 1198 parents of students aged between 5 and 18 years attending 12 selected schools in the geographic area of Salerno and Naples, Italy, using a self-administered questionnarie. Results: 68.2% of parents stated that had visited their general practitioner (GP) or family pediatrician (FP) with their child in the last year. 66.2% of children had had at least one visit to a specialist and more than half (54.8%) had had preventive care visits in the last year. The use of preventive care visits within last year was significantly higher amongst female, among those who had visited their GP or FP and among those who had a parent with a college degree or higher. The proportion of emergency department visits and hospital admissions reported were 12.8% and 4.7% respectively. Conclusion: This results highlights the need of educational interventions for parents and adolescents in order to increase the utilization of preventive health services
A novel approach to quantify the wound closure dynamic
No full textThe Wound Healing (WH) assay is widely used to investigate cell migration in vitro, in order to reach a better understanding of many physiological and pathological phenomena. Several experimental factors, such as uneven cell density among different samples, can affect the reproducibility and reliability of this assay, leading to a discrepancy in the wound closure kinetics among data sets corresponding to the same cell sample. We observed a linear relationship between the wound closure velocity and cell density, and suggested a novel methodological approach, based on transport phenomena concepts, to overcome this source of error on the analysis of the Wound Healing assay. In particular, we propose a simple scaling of the experimental data, based on the interpretation of the wound closure as a diffusion-reaction process. We applied our methodology to the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, whose motility was perturbed by silencing or over-expressing genes involved in the control of cell migration. Our methodological approach leads to a significant improvement in the reproducibility and reliability in the in vitro WH assay
Interactions between microstructured fluids and stratum corneum: pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications
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