PromoCell and CytoSMART experiment: wound closure assay

PromoCell is one of the leading companies that provide life science researchers with primary human cells and the corresponding cell culture necessities. Visual inspection of cell cultures to monitor cell health and proliferation is of great importance. Especially when working with primary cells, as these cells might not be so easy to culture compared to the standard HeLa cells. Since CytoSMART develops cloud-based live-cell imaging solutions that can help in monitoring cell health, a link between PromoCell and CytoSMART was easily made.

Besides the CytoSMART Lux2 for monitoring general cell health and proliferation during culture, the CytoSMART Omni can be used to analyze experiments using primary cells. One example of this is the analysis of the migratory capacities of primary human keratinocytes. We cultured monolayers of PromoCell’s juvenile Normal Human Epidermal Keratinocytes in a 48-well plate and made a wound in the monolayer to mimic the re-epithelialization process, one of the first processes in cutaneous wound healing. Thereafter, wound closure was analyzed every hour using the CytoSMART Omni and its scratch analysis algorithm.

An example of the keratinocyte wound closure can be found in this video:

If you are interested in the entire experiment and its results, please check out the application note 'Kinetic analysis of in vitro wound closure by keratinocytes' we made together with PromoCell to get detailed insights into the experiment. You can see a sneak peek of the results in the figure below. The wound closure was measured every hour to obtain a detailed insight into the wound closure process.