Making the cut: Innovative methods for optimizing perfusion-based migration assays.

Application of fluid shear stress to adherent cells dramatically influences their cytoskeletal makeup and differentially regulates their migratory phenotype. Because cytoskeletal rearrangements are necessary for cell motility and migration, preserving these adaptations under in vitro conditions and in the presence of fluid flow are physiologically essential. With this in mind, parallel plate flow chambers and microchannels are often used to conduct in vitro perfusion experiments.