Systems Biology approach to elucidate HGF-induced cell migration

To observe migration of keratinocytes we used a Systems Biology approach to uncover novel key players for cell migration.

We performed a dynamic time-dependent HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factoer) migration assay followed by microarray analysis. This High-throughput expression profiling technique provides a cell-wide gene expression kinetics at the transcriptomic level whereas several key players are covert in the data set.

To gain a systemic overview of the transcriptome we use a complexity reduction strategy to identify, investigate, and model key signaling pathways crucial for migration.

With this method we were able to discover several new key players, like Interleukin-8, Prostaglandin E Receptor 4 and Kindlin-2, that could play a role in migration of keratinocytes. To validate these predictive data from the computational model we inhibit different candidates and analyze their effect on cell migration in vitro.