Standard Operating Procedure for Wound Healing Cell Migration Assay within the Nanostructurome Pipeline

Standardization of scientific procedures is a key issue in making research reproducible, cost-effective, shareable and easily accessible for technology transfer and data reuse. Here we present a standard operating procedure (SOP) for setting-up, running and analyzing a cellular wound healing assay. Wound healing assays allow the ability of different substances, such as conditioned medium, natural extracts, natural and synthetic compounds, drugs, extracellular vesicles, and synthetic nanoparticles to influence the ability of cells to migrate to be evaluated. Different cell types can be tested, including both normal and tumor cell lines. The output of the assay is to determine the effect of the tested sample on the migratory ability of specific cells, compared to untreated cells, by measuring the percentage of wound closure over time. These data are relevant in all the biological contexts in which cell migration occurs, including morphogenetic events during embryonic development, tissue repair and regeneration, tumor infiltration and invasiveness, and metastasis.

The SOP provides a step-by-step description of the procedure, lists the materials and equipment required, and identifies safety measures, instrument cautions and critical process parameters that must be controlled to ensure the quality of the output. It is therefore a valuable tool for staff training, competence transfer, quality assurance and management of the process, as well as facilitating technology transfer.