The “simple” culture of cells on plastic dishes or matrix represents in fact the oldest NAM that is meanwhile available for almost all cell types of human origin. Despite highly reductionist and affected by the selected culture conditions, these sort of analytic tools are frequently applied to rule out a specific mechanism in a defined cell type. Moreover, screening approaches (e.g. to determine toxic concentrations of drugs) make use of the simplicity and cost efficiency of corresponding cell culture-based assays. 

Our methodological portfolio comprises many different 2D culture models for endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells, which we combine with modern partially AI-supported technologies to enable the assessment of multiple parameters at the same time. For instance, cell density (confluence), growth rate and motility (average velocity) can be simultaneously analyzed by employing the CellWatcher (PHIO scientific GmbH) system without further manual processing. 

_{Analysis of cell density, growth rate and motility of human umbilical artery smooth muscle cells upon exposure to different cell culture conditions. Images were automatically taken and analyzed by the CellWatcher system in real time. Exemplary representative images (time points: 8h and 47h) are shown on the right hand side. The motility is visualized by color coding (white: no velocity; purple: significant velocity).} 

 

Contact:

Prof. Thomas Korff, Abteilung Herz- und Kreislaufphysiologie 

E-Mail: korff(at)physiologie.uni-heidelberg.de