Cell migration / Invasion

Wound healing assay can be challenging due to inconsistencies and variations while making a wound on the confluent cell monolayer, consequently leads to wounds of varying sizes and widths. Moreover, this assay causes damage to the cells that are at the edge of the wound, which can prevent cell migration into the wound site and healing. The best solution is to use the standard wound healing assay kits using either combs or inserts to make a defined wound field or gap and prevent the well-to-well variation in these assays.

Wound healing assay can be challenging due to inconsistencies and variations while making a wound on the confluent cell monolayer, consequently leads to wounds of varying sizes and widths. Moreover, this assay causes damage to the cells that are at the edge of the wound, which can prevent cell migration into the wound site and healing. The best solution is to use the standard wound healing assay kits using either combs or inserts to make a defined wound field or gap and prevent the well-to-well variation in these assays.

Wound healing assay can be challenging due to inconsistencies and variations while making a wound on the confluent cell monolayer, consequently leads to wounds of varying sizes and widths. Moreover, this assay causes damage to the cells that are at the edge of the wound, which can prevent cell migration into the wound site and healing. The best solution is to use the standard wound healing assay kits using either combs or inserts to make a defined wound field or gap and prevent the well-to-well variation in these assays.

Cell cytotoxicity assays measure the ability of certain compounds or chemical mediators to reduce the viability of the cells. The term cell cytotoxicity assay can sometimes be used interchangeably with cell proliferation assay. Healthy living cells can be identified by the use of formazan dyes, protease biomarkers or by measuring ATP content. The formazan dyes are chromogenic products formed by the reduction of tetrazolium salts by dehydrogenases, such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and reductases that are released during cell death. Common tetrazolium salts include INT, MTT, MTS and XTT. Cell cytotoxicity can also be measured by using the SRB and WST-1 assays. These assays can usually be used in a high-throughput fashion and can be quantitated by measuring absorbance, colorimetry or luminescence. All these assays require similar numbers of cell plating at the initiation, a time course of treatment with the cytotoxic agent and at least triplicates for each condition at every point of analysis. Cell shrinkage, plasma membrane blebbing, cell detachment, externalization of phosphatidylserine, nuclear condensation and ultimately DNA fragmentation are well-described features of apoptosis. The assays that rely on cell membrane integrity for their function, may not be able to quantify early apoptosis. Therefore, in order to distinguish early apoptotic vs. late apoptotic or necrotic cells, additional flow cytometry techniques can be used. A combination of Annexin V and PI (propidium iodide) can be used to distinguish early (Annexin V+/PI-) and late apoptotic (Annexin V+/PI+) cells. Sometimes, caspase assays are used in order to differentiate the stages of apoptosis.

Cell cycle can be challenging due to difference introduced by sample handling, timing, and difference within the sample. Downstream instriuments to analyse cell cycle (Multicolor flow cytometry and multicolor imaging) can answer these challenges. Relevant markers can be combined with cell phenotyping markers to look at events within subpopulations of cells.

Protein ladders are a set of standards known as molecular weight proteins that are utilized to identify the approximate size of a protein molecule run on a PAGE gel electrophoresis. The challenges in running the ladders are the choice of appropriate protein standard as it is used as visual evidence of protein migration, transfer efficiency, and positive control. Suitable protein markers can be selected on the basis of required properties and applications, i.e., fluorescent ladder, IEF, 2D SDS-PAGE ladder, natural ladder with an isoelectric point, and optimized ladders for Western Blot chemiluminescence detection. The key factors for running a distinct protein ladder are buffer conditions, charge/voltage at migration time, and the gel's concentration.

Protein ladders are a set of standards known as molecular weight proteins that are utilized to identify the approximate size of a protein molecule run on a PAGE gel electrophoresis. The challenges in running the ladders are the choice of appropriate protein standard as it is used as visual evidence of protein migration, transfer efficiency, and positive control. Suitable protein markers can be selected on the basis of required properties and applications, i.e., fluorescent ladder, IEF, 2D SDS-PAGE ladder, natural ladder with an isoelectric point, and optimized ladders for Western Blot chemiluminescence detection. The key factors for running a distinct protein ladder are buffer conditions, charge/voltage at migration time, and the gel's concentration.

Protein ladders are a set of standards known as molecular weight proteins that are utilized to identify the approximate size of a protein molecule run on a PAGE gel electrophoresis. The challenges in running the ladders are the choice of appropriate protein standard as it is used as visual evidence of protein migration, transfer efficiency, and positive control. Suitable protein markers can be selected on the basis of required properties and applications, i.e., fluorescent ladder, IEF, 2D SDS-PAGE ladder, natural ladder with an isoelectric point, and optimized ladders for Western Blot chemiluminescence detection. The key factors for running a distinct protein ladder are buffer conditions, charge/voltage at migration time, and the gel's concentration.

Protein ladders are a set of standards known as molecular weight proteins that are utilized to identify the approximate size of a protein molecule run on a PAGE gel electrophoresis. The challenges in running the ladders are the choice of appropriate protein standard as it is used as visual evidence of protein migration, transfer efficiency, and positive control. Suitable protein markers can be selected on the basis of required properties and applications, i.e., fluorescent ladder, IEF, 2D SDS-PAGE ladder, natural ladder with an isoelectric point, and optimized ladders for Western Blot chemiluminescence detection. The key factors for running a distinct protein ladder are buffer conditions, charge/voltage at migration time, and the gel's concentration.

There are a plethora of detection methods of cell cytotoxicity and proliferation by flow cytometry. However, samples preparation for such flow cytometry-based techniques could be challenging. Cell harvesting by trypsinization, mechanical or enzymatic cell disaggregation from tissues, extensive centrifugation steps, may all lead to preferential loss of apoptotic cells. To overcome this strictly follow manufacturers instruction of the detection kit.