Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
BrainLinks-BrainTools Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 15;13(1):11444. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38664-y.
Bioelectric communication plays a significant role in several cellular processes and biological mechanisms, such as division, differentiation, migration, cancer metastasis, and wound healing. Ion flow across cellular walls leads to potential gradients and subsequent formation of constant or time-varying electric fields(EFs), which regulate cellular processes. An EF is natively generated towards the wound center during epithelial wound healing, aiming to align and guide cell migration, particularly of macrophages, fibroblasts, and keratinocytes. While this phenomenon, known as electrotaxis or galvanotaxis, has been extensively investigated across many cell types, it is typically explored one cell type at a time, which does not accurately represent cellular interactions during complex biological processes. Here we show the co-cultured electrotaxis of epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts with a salt-bridgeless microfluidic approach for the first time. The electrotactic response of these cells was first assessed in mono-culture to establish a baseline, resulting in the characteristic cathodic migration for keratinocytes and anodic for fibroblasts. Both cell types retained their electrotactic properties in co-culture leading to clear cellular partition even in the presence of cellular collisions. The methods leveraged here pave the way for future co-culture electrotaxis experiments where the concurrent influence of cell types can be thoroughly investigated.
生物电通讯在几个细胞过程和生物机制中起着重要作用，例如分裂、分化、迁移、癌症转移和伤口愈合。离子穿过细胞壁流动会导致电势梯度，并随后形成恒定或时变的电场 (EF)，从而调节细胞过程。在上皮伤口愈合过程中，EF 会自然地朝向伤口中心生成，旨在对齐并引导细胞迁移，特别是巨噬细胞、成纤维细胞和角质细胞的迁移。虽然这种现象被称为趋电性或趋电化，已经在许多细胞类型中得到了广泛研究，但通常一次只研究一种细胞类型，这不能准确地反映复杂生物过程中的细胞相互作用。在这里，我们首次使用无盐桥微流控方法展示了表皮角质细胞和真皮成纤维细胞的共培养趋电性。首先在单培养中评估这些细胞的趋电性反应，以建立基线，导致角质细胞的阴极迁移和成纤维细胞的阳极迁移。这两种细胞类型在共培养中都保持了它们的趋电性，即使在存在细胞碰撞的情况下，也能清楚地区分细胞。这里利用的方法为未来的共培养趋电性实验铺平了道路，在这些实验中可以彻底研究细胞类型的并发影响。
