Effect of Aloe resin on cell migration between Scratch and Boyden chamber assays

Effect of herbal medicine on cell migration is one of the therapeutic points. The objective of this study was to compare the Scratch assay with the Boyden chamber assay for evaluating cell migration with Aloe resin as the chemoattractant agent. Human gingival fibroblasts cells (2.5×105 cells/ml) were exposed to 0.02% (w/v) of Aloe resin in 6-well culture plates for the Scratch assay or in 24-transwell-culture plates for the Boyden chamber assay. Cell migration into the scratch area and at the bottom of a transwell insert after 24 and 16 h exposure to Aloe resin were stained with Toluidine blue O and Giemsa stain, respectively. Images of the migrated cells in each assay were obtained using a microscope and counted. The percentage of cell migration was 29.94±3.5 and 32.4±2.5 in the Scratch assay and Boyden chamber assay, respectively. There was no significant difference in cell migration between the two assays (p>0.05). The ICC values of both assays in 5 experiments were 0.767, 0.792, 0.816, 0.758, and 0.778. The strength of agreement for both assays was good. The Boyden chamber assay can be used for cell migration evaluation and generated results similar to those of the Scratch assay. Key words: Aloe resin, intraclass correlation coefficient, wound healing assay.