Wound healing processes in cell cultures

Abstract Reactions of various types of normal and neoplastic cell cultures to the mechanical removal of a part of the culture were studied. 1. 1. Normal cells actively migrated from the edge of the wound on cell-free glass. Usually this migration was limited: most migrating cells remained within a certain zone near the edge. 2. 2. Cells that synthetized or did not synthetize DNA before the operation migrated into the wound in proportions similar to their proportions in other parts of the culture. 3. 3. Migration of cells into the wound was inhibited by colcemide. 4. 4. Most cells migrating into the wound were induced to begin DNA synthesis after a latent period of about 12–18 h. This activation of DNA synthesis was local: the cells in the other parts of operated cultures were not activated. 5. 5. Migration of neoplastic cells into the wound was very slow as compared with that of the normal cells. This migration was not followed by the activation of DNA synthesis in neoplastic cells.