Galvanotactic phenomenon induced by non-contact electrostatic field: Investigation in a scratch assay

Non-contact galvanotaxis as a way to drive the cells migration could be a promising tool for a variety of biomedical applications, such as wound healing control, avoiding the interaction between electrodes and cell cultures. To this regard, the efficacy of this electrical stimulus application has to be deeper studied to control physiological migratory phenomena in a remote way.Aim of this work is to provide an experimental investigation on the mobility of cells exposed to a static electric field in a "noncontact" mode, supported by a suitable modeling of the electric field distribution inside the experimental setup. In particular, scratch assays have been carried out placing the electrodes outside the cells medium support and changing the cells holder to study more than one configuration.Clinical Relevance— In this study the in vitro experiments on the non-contact galvanotaxis, together with the numerical simulations of the exposure setup, provide a way to investigate the effects that could affect an electrically drive cell migration.