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The scratch wound healing assay is one of the most highly used in vitro methods to monitor and quantify collective cell migration. Conventional methods for conducting scratch wound healing assays involve manual wound creation, which yields low reproducibility between wounds, high variability within generated data, and possible false conclusions regarding test molecules. In contrast, employing an automated wound creation tool and kinetic image capture and analysis enables consistent wounding and robust assay results.

The Agilent BioTek AutoScratch wound making tool creates uniform and precise wounds in either 24- or 96-well plates. Cell migration into the wound area over time is monitored within the Agilent BioTek Lionheart FX automated microscope or Agilent BioTek Cytation cell imaging multimode reader. The Agilent BioTek Gen5 microplate reader and imager software delivers detailed kinetic profiles of cell migration results in real time. Additionally, the dedicated Scratch Assay App provides a streamlined solution for maximum user convenience.

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AutoScratch Wound Making Tool for Wound Healing and Cell Migration Assays

AutoScratch Wound Making Tool

Automatically create consistent scratch wounds in 24- or 96-well plates with the push of a button.

Automated Cleaning Routine

This walk-away procedure cleans and sterilizes pins before and after wound creation.

Safe for Cells Grown on ECM

PTFE pins and precise movement won’t damage the ECM layer, including collagen and fibronectin.


Automated Scratch Wound Healing Assay

Capture

Kinetic high-contrast brightfield (HCBF) images are captured based on desired interval and duration.

Analyze

Images are processed and analyzed to measure cell migration in real time.

Report

Kinetic profiles of wound closure rates reveal detailed information on cell migration across treatment conditions.


A Complete Automated Solution for Conducting Scratch Wound Healing Assays

Combining the Agilent BioTek Scratch Assay App with the AutoScratch wound making tool and BioTek automated imaging system provides a complete end-to-end workflow. The Scratch Assay App automatically generates detailed reports of cell migration, including confluence and maximum wound healing rate, for maximum user convenience.


Incorporation of a Novel Automated Scratch Tool and Kinetic Imaging to Perform Wound Healing Assays

In this application note, the AutoScratch wound healing assay and conventional manual scratch assay methods are compared by measuring the migration behavior of many cell types with drug treatment. Wound widths and kinetic values resulting from the AutoScratch assay show improved reproducibility and increased robustness over manual methods. The combination of the automated wound creation procedure, kinetic imaging, and Agilent BioTek Gen5 cellular analysis method creates an easy-to-use, dependable process to carry out wound healing assays.


Featured Webinar: A Fully Automated Solution for Conducting Cell Migration Assays

In this webinar, a fully automated cell migration assay using the AutoScratch wound making tool is described, providing a convenient and reproducible method for quantifying 2D cellular migration in either 24- or 96-well formats.

Also, we present tips and tricks for optimizing scratch assays, including sample preparation, postscratch washing procedures, and techniques for ensuring accurate and meaningful quantitative results.



Increase Assay Throughput

The Agilent BioTek BioSpa live cell analysis system enables parallel kinetic analysis of the scratch wound assay on up to eight microplates.

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Liquid Handling Automation

Incorporating the Agilent BioTek MultiFlo FX multimode dispenser into the workflow improves sample consistency and assay results.

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