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 Crystalline forms under polarized light