Wound healing/scratch assay - (Oct/22/2008 )

Hello,

I have a question for those of you who are familiar with the wound healing assay (probably a stupid question, but I am still a newbie in the field). I am planning to examine how migration is influenced by specific factors (I am using C2C12 myoblast cell line) and one option for me is to use this assay - to scratch a monolayer of cells. However, I was wondering how exactly can I be sure that a given factor is inducing migration or proliferation. If, after let's say 24h, the scratched area has been repopulated (or the wound has been healed), how am I sure that this is a result of migration of the cells and not simply of proliferation? Can you give me some more information about interpreting the results of this assay, migration vs proliferation?

If you want to make sure its migration and not proliferation, I would follow up your scratch wound assay with a proliferation assay, either a plate based one or stain the cells with a proliferation marker and count- Ki67 or something.
That should tell you whether its proliferation or migration that is responsible.

Lost

If you access to live cell microscopy it can show you the difference - taking an image every hour for 24hrs really shows you if it's cell division or movement.
Also you can inhibit proliferation with mito c