Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Cell-Matrix Interactions During En Masse Cell Migration, Meng Zhuang, Altug Ozcelikkale, Bumsoo Han

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Extended wound care, including prolonged treatment of burn injuries, acute and chronic wounds, is a significant source of patient discomfort and financial burden to public healthcare programs. Both accelerated healing and prevention of scar formation are highly desired but remain to be challenging to achieve. This is primary due to limited understanding of interactions between cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) during wound healing. Particularly, collective migration of fibroblasts through provisional matrix, so called en masse migration, is one of these interactions that play a critical role in later stages of granulation tissue formation and wound closure. In addition …