Scratch Assay

Finally, an experiment!

But before the fun begins, I have to introduce two new faces: Bronson (PhD Student) and Oscar (Undergrad Student). Together, they will be conducting the experiment while I observe. 

But here's the catch.... I had to wake up at 4:45 am. Yes, am. In order to view said experiment, I had to be on NAU's campus at 6:00 am. Now, there's no particular reason that the experiment had to be done this early, but according to Bronson, he's more of a morning person when it comes to doing research. Ugh, I am not a morning person no matter the cause. But it had to be done. For the greater good. For science! (okay, maybe a bit too dramatic)

Anyways, once on campus, I couldn't just stroll into the lab as I had imagined. Nope, the building's exterior doors were locked. I mean, sure, makes sense. It's not like anyone was expecting visitors at 6 in the morning. But, when you're half asleep and freezing, these thoughts don't go through your mind (at least, not mine). Long story short, Oscar managed to save me from turning into a human popsicle. 

Once in the lab, we couldn’t immediately start the experiment. Since we were creating scratch assays (hence the title), cells had to be grown a full week in advance to use today. So, the cell growth density for each sample had to be checked. This is important because, if the cells don’t grow to full density (pretty much cell next to cell) the test is scrapped, since the sample will not mock human skin. As it turned out, both samples were not fully grown. 

Now, why this happened, is still a big unknown. But regardless, the day wasn’t completely wasted. While we were sitting around wondering what could've gone wrong, we also discussed the experimental set-up. Here's what I learned: In general, scratch assays are effective for mimicking a wound in vitro. In this case, the assays will also be used to observe the effects of arsenic and estrogen in a wound. In theory, the arsenic-contaminated wounds should take longer to close than the control. Continuing this thought, the wound that has been treated with estrogen should hopefully close faster than the control. Now, the big question is, what happens if you treat the arsenic-contaminated wound with estrogen? Could the contamination process somehow be reversed? Only experimentation will tell.

Science... it can be a pain sometimes

-Tudor

The Works

Before we can dive into the science of artificial* wound healing, we have to understand how natural healing occurs. 

Our skin serves as the first protective barrier to outside pathogens. But once the skin is penetrated and damaged, three consecutive stages will take place: inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Local inflammation serves an important role since it becomes a sort of "activator" for further responses. One such response is the release of chemical signals, which will ultimately help deliver clotting agents and phagocytes to the wound. If you're scratching your head wondering what these are, don't worry! I'm here to help.

Clotting agents will, simply enough, clot. This will prevent the loss of too much blood, but we're not done yet. Foreign material that flooded the wound, whether this be specks of dust or pathogens, has to be taken care of. Luckily for us, phagocytes love to eat material, but only foreign material (which is good, or else they would be engulfing our bacteria as well). From here on, antibodies become activated and blah blah blah... Admittedly, I am going to skip over quite a few steps here, but, they're not essential to understanding wound healing. In fact, the remaining immune responses deal with cleaning up the mess: destroying the antigens (foreign material) and then creating immunity to the antigens.

At this point, we still have a gash in our skin. So, proliferation takes place: the cells surrounding the wound begin to reproduce rapidly and move across the wound. Even once the wound is closed, the cells are still at work. During the remodeling phase, the dermal tissues continue to reproduce in order to increase strength and support. 

Now, all these steps were somewhat simplified. But regardless, the scope of artificial wound healing is to improve on these existing steps. This can be in the form of accelerating the entire process, or even creating new skin for the scarring that remains. 

-Tudor

*in the sense that the healing has to be promoted by some outside factors

Introduction!

Hello there!


My name is Tudor. Yes, like the English Dynasty (and no, I was not named after them).

For the next twelve weeks I will be working on my Senior Research Project (SRP), which I have dedicated to wound healing. I will be focusing this project and blog on the latest research behind this issue. Now, wound healing in itself is a very broad topic, which leaves a lot of room to explore. But the truth of the matter is that key problems, such as sustainability and efficiency, lead the focus while also opening new doors to the unknown. For example, skin grafts require a donor. This means that the skin, in lack of a better phrase, has been used. Not only this, but finding a donor is also a problem. As is usual for any progress, someone asked "isn't there a better way?" And voilà, we have a need for research!

This research will be taking place at Northern Arizona University and at Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET). I am super grateful to be working alongside Dr. Robert Kellar and his students. I am also grateful for the guidance and support that my on campus advisors, Ms. Alicia Vaughan and Ms. Lisa McDonough, will provide me.

Now let's science the heck out of this!