Abstract
Cellular migration assays are useful tools to investigate physiologic events on the bench top. Furthermore, this migration assay can be utilized to investigate wound healing therapeutics (those that encourage or accelerate wound closure) as well as deleterious agents (ones that mitigate or slow wound closure). The current study used an in vitro scratch assay to measure the effects of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and depleted uranium (DU) in the form of uranyl acetate on cellular migration of human neonatal dermal fibroblasts in an in vitro simulation of wound healing. Data analyses included percent wound closure measured as the distance between cell margins, and rates of wound closure versus untreated controls. The highest doses of PRP (0.063, 0.125%) resulted in 50-65% wound closure after 4-8 hours relative to 38-44% in controls and the low-dose treatment group (0.031%). The high-dose treatments of PRP (0.125, 0.063%) reached 100% wound closure at 12 hours postwound versus 16 hours for controls and the low-dose treatment group (0.031%). Conversely, the higher doses of DU treatments (50 and 100 μM) resulted in <80% closure versus 100% closure in controls after 16 hours, with full closure observed at 20 hours. The highest dose of DU (1,000 μM) resulted in <20% closure versus 100% closure in controls after 16 hours. The use of the described scratch assay serves as a translatable bench-top model that has the potential to predict in vivo outcomes, and in many early studies can help to demonstrate proof-of-concept before moving into complex biological systems.