Transcript By Ashley Maidon STEP Summer Internship Program 2001

By Ashley Maidon
STEP Summer Internship Program 2001
Campbell University School of Pharmacy
Introduction
Cells in some tissues can move from one place to
another place to perform specific tasks. e.g. the
immune system cells.
Others cells may move as part of a disease process.
e.g. cancer cells
Introduction
Vascular smooth muscles may move during the
development of heart disease. The movement
of smooth muscle cells may form plaques on the
arteries and can lead to heart attacks.
We studied how vascular smooth muscle cells
move in a collagen matrix.
Methods
Week 1: We grew vascular smooth muscle cells in culture
dishes to use in the migration study.
Methods
Week 2: Cells in the study were grown inside a collagen
gel matrix
These cells were left untreated or
treated with fetal bovine serum to
stimulate them to move inside the gel.
A third group of cells in the gels were
treated with fetal bovine serum and
estrogen.
We hoped that estrogen would stop the
movement of cells inside the gels.
Methods
We looked at how vascular smooth muscle cells moved in the
collagen layer when stimulated with fetal bovine serum.
Materials Used in the Experiments
•Pipettors
•Culture dishes
•Cell culture hood and incubator
•Centrifuge
•Water baths
•Cell culture media to grow the cells
•Inverted microscope, digital camera and computer
SNAPPY!
Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells growing in collagen gels
without fetal bovine serum treatment
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells in collagen gels after
treatment with Fetal Bovine Serum
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Results
Vascular smooth muscle cells in collagen gels treated with
Fetal Bovine Serum and Estrogen
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Conclusions
Vascular smooth muscle cells look different depending on
whether they are grown on plastic culture dishes or in
collagen gels
Conclusions
Fetal bovine serum did not cause any movement of the cells
Estrogen treatment may cause these cells to remain more
rounded
FBS-treated cells
FBS+Estrogen treated cells
Summary
These two weeks have been fun… even cleaning up the lab was
cool!!
I learned about a different type of science that I had no idea about.
Working with the cells in the hood was fun but using SNAPPY to get
images of cells was the best part!
Special thanks to:
Dr. Abraham
Janice Jackson-Freeman
Dr. Webster
Emily Bloom
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