An accurate and cost-effective alternative method for measuring cell migration with the circular wound closure assay

Abstract

Cell migration is important in many physiological and pathological processes. Mechanisms of two-dimensional cell migration have been investigated most commonly by evaluating rates of cell migration into linearly scratched zones on the surfaces of culture plates. Here, we present a detailed description of a simple adaptation for the well-known and popular wound closure assay, using a circular wound instead of a straight line. This method demonstrates improved precision, reproducibility, and sampling objectivity for measurements of wound sizes as compared with classic scratch assays, enabling more accurate calculations of migration rate. The added benefits of the method are simplicity and low cost as compared with commercially available assays for generating circular wounds.