The CellProfiler pipeline analysis of cell migration

Abstract

We demonstrate herein a refined method to evaluate the migration capacity of monolayer cells using the CellProfiler pipeline. We used MDA-MB-231 cells, a triple-negative breast cancer cell line, as a model to perform the wound healing assay and proceeded with the pipeline analysis. In order to see a contrast in our analysis of cell migration, we treated the cells with 10 µM kartogenin for 48 h and compared the result to the control cells treated with 0.1 % dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The migration rate of MDA-MB-231 cells could be measured precisely using this method whereby in the presence of 10 µM kartogenin, the cells migrated at 6.3 ± 1.7µmh⁻¹ whilst the vehicle control migrated at 9.1 ± 3.2 µmh⁻¹ (p < 0.05). The small changes in the rate of migration could be significantly differentiated and we believe that this method is accurate in analyzing data of scratch assays as it is of high precision and therefore can be used for high-throughput screenings.