Biological responses of injured human skin fibroblasts to assess the efficacy of in vitro models for cell stress studies

Abstract

The classical central scratch method has been used to successfully induce a wound environment
however this model has been criticized. This study aimed to compare the cellular responses of normal
fibroblast cells with those of wounded, diabetic wounded, acidic and hypoxic cells to determine if the
latter two models are more effective in inducing an injured environment than the central scratch
method. The cellular responses that were evaluated included; cell morphology, viability, proliferation,
cytotoxicity and DNA damage. The results from this study showed that the biochemical tests were
sensitive enough to distinguish changes between normal and wounded, diabetic wounded, acidic and
hypoxic cells. Wounded cells showed a decrease in ATP viability, increase in caspase 3/7 activity,
increase in proliferation and increase in cytotoxicity and DNA damage when compared to normal cells.
This study confirmed that although a central scratch method only wounds 5 - 10% of the surface cells it
was sufficient to successfully induce a wound environment in vitro . The results suggest that the in
vitro models may not only be used to study wound healing but also cellular responses related to other
pathological conditions such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes and biological or biochemical changes in
response to treatment such as laser therapy otherwise known as phototherapy.