Cells On The Move

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Cells On The Move
By Ashley Maidon STEP Summer Internship Program
2001 Campbell University School of Pharmacy
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Introduction
Cells in some tissues can move from one place to
another place to perform specific tasks. e.g.
the immune system cells. Others cells may move
as part of a disease process. e.g. cancer cells
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Introduction
Vascular smooth muscles may move during the
development of heart disease. The movement of
smooth muscle cells may form plaques on the
arteries and can lead to heart attacks. We
studied how vascular smooth muscle cells move in
a collagen matrix.
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Methods Week 1 We grew vascular smooth muscle
cells in culture dishes to use in the migration
study.
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Methods
Week 2 Cells in the study were grown inside a
collagen gel matrix
These cells were left untreated or treated with
fetal bovine serum to stimulate them to move
inside the gel.
A third group of cells in the gels were treated
with fetal bovine serum and estrogen.
We hoped that estrogen would stop the movement of
cells inside the gels.
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Methods
We looked at how vascular smooth muscle cells
moved in the collagen layer when stimulated with
fetal bovine serum.
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Materials Used in the Experiments

• Pipettors
• Culture dishes
• Cell culture hood and incubator
• Centrifuge
• Water baths
• Cell culture media to grow the cells
• Inverted microscope, digital camera and computer

SNAPPY!
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Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells growing in collagen
gels without fetal bovine serum treatment
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
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Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells in collagen gels
after treatment with Fetal Bovine Serum
Day 2
Day 1
Day 3
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Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells in collagen gels
treated with Fetal Bovine Serum and Estrogen
Day 3
Day 1
Day 2
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Conclusions
Vascular smooth muscle cells look different
depending on whether they are grown on plastic
culture dishes or in collagen gels
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Conclusions
Fetal bovine serum did not cause any movement of
the cells
Estrogen treatment may cause these cells to
remain more rounded
FBS-treated cells
FBSEstrogen treated cells
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Summary
These two weeks have been fun even cleaning up
the lab was cool!! I learned about a different
type of science that I had no idea
about. Working with the cells in the hood was
fun but using SNAPPY to get images of cells was
the best part!
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Special thanks to
Dr. Abraham Janice Jackson-Freeman Dr.
Webster Emily Bloom
Crystalline forms under polarized light