In vitro electrical-stimulated wound-healing chip for studying electric field-assisted wound-healing process

Abstract

The wound-healing assay is an easy and economical way to quantify cell migration under diverse stimuli. Traditional assays such as scratch assays and barrier assays are widely and commonly used, but neither of them can represent the complicated condition when a wound occurs. It has been suggested that wound-healing is related to electric fields, which were found to regulate wound re-epithelialization. As a wound occurs, the disruption of epithelial barrier shortcircuits the trans-epithelial potential and then a lateral endogenous electric field is created. This field has been proved in vitro as an important cue for guiding the migration of fibroblasts, macrophages, and keratinocytes, a phenomenon termed electrotaxis or galvanotaxis. In this paper, we report a microfluidic electricalstimulated wound-healing chip (ESWHC) integrating electric field with a modified barrier assay. This chip was used to study the migration of fibroblasts under different conditions such as serum, electric field, and wound-healingpromoting drugs. We successfully demonstrate the feasibility of ESWHC to effectively and quantitatively study cell migration during wound-healing process, and therefore this chip could be useful in drug discovery and drug safety tests.

Electrochemical biofilm control: a review

“…For example, reactive oxygen species (ROSs) can be generated near the electrode surface through oxygen reduction in the presence of oxygen (Babauta et al 2013, Istanbullu et al 2012). Such ROSs can delay bacterial attachment/growth on the biofilm electrode (Istanbullu et al 2012, Schmidt-Malan et al 2015, Sun et al 2012). Continuous application of a constant potential and thus delivery of ROSs can also remove preexisting biofilms from an electrode surface (Dhar et al 1981).…”

Correlation between cell migration and reactive oxygen species under electric field stimulation

“…62 In addition, in the wound-healing assay reported by Sun et al, the woundhealing rate of NIH 3T3 cells was 14 lm/h under an EF of 150 mV/mm. 53 With the addition of 1 lM b-lapachone, the migration rates were higher compared to those without b-lapachone, and these values again increased with increasing EF. For example, the mean rates increased from 17.3 lm/h to 22.9 lm/h under 100 mV/mm, and from 31.7 lm/h to 38.4 lm/h under 400 mV/mm in response to the addition of b-lapachone.…”

“…Another microfluidic electrical stimulated wound-healing chip was designed and fabricated to integrate an EF with a modified barrier assay. 53 The migration of fibroblasts was studied under different conditions, such as in serum, under various EFs, and in the presence of wound-healing promoting drugs.…”

The use of electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic field for directed cell migration and adhesion in regenerative medicine

“…Many types of cells migrate to the cathode (negative) source at field strengths between 0.1 and 10 V cm 21 . These cell types include neural crest cells, [68][69][70] fibroblasts, 53,71,72 keratinocytes, 52,73,74 chondrocytes, 75,76 cancer cells (which are known to have a negative surface charge), 9,77,78 and various types of epithelial cells. 73,79,80 Only a few cells move to the anode.…”