title: Development of in vitro model systems to study single and collective cell migration
creator: Rolli, Claudio Gavino
subject: 540
subject: 540 Chemistry and allied sciences
description: Cell migration is an essential characteristic of both physiological and pathological processes within the human body. In order to study the complex process of cell migration different in vitro model systems have been developed in the past. The challenge for all these assays is to provide the cells a substrate that mimics particular properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) while a high control over experimental parameters and monitoring is desired. However, migration assays commonly used in cell biology and medical research are rather limited in the control over the architecture of the provided matrix on or through which the cells move or by the lack of adequate imaging devices to monitor cell dynamics. To overcome some limitations of conventional migration assays, it was the aim of this work to develop two different methods and employ them in order to quantify migrative behavior of cells under precisely controlled in vitro conditions. The first assay consists of microfabricated three dimensional (3D) scaffolds, which allow to study cell migration dynamics through confined environments via live-cell imaging. Channel structures of precisely defined dimensions were utilized to quantify the invasiveness of single cancer cells with respect to modifications of their cytoskeleton organization. In addition, dynamical migration patterns of the cells inside these confined 3D environments were analyzed and found to be significantly changed from their counterparts on flat, two dimensional (2D), surfaces. Furthermore, it was shown that such microfabricated structures could be functionalized in the nanometer range with patterns of gold nanoparticles. Thus, the selective binding of ECM-derived ligand motifs, to the gold particles allows for mimicking specific features of the ECM in 3D.
date: 2011
type: Dissertation
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/12987/1/phd_thesis_crolli_DIGITAL.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00012987
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-opus-129876
identifier:   Rolli, Claudio Gavino  (2011) Development of in vitro model systems to study single and collective cell migration.  [Dissertation]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/12987/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html
language: eng