Overview of the wound healing spatiotemporal dynamics.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Snapshots from a wound healing assay of DA3 cells treated with HGF/SF. The color bands are used to visualize the locations of elevated cellular acceleration and stretching (green), directionality (purple) and their overlay (cyan), and were calculated from the experimental data by segmenting the corresponding kymographs. d₁23 represent the location of currently accelerating cells demonstrating the wave's backward propagation. The full video is freely available at “The Cell: an Image Library”, <a href="http://www.cellimagelibrary.org/images/45355" target="_blank">http://www.cellimagelibrary.org/images/45355</a>. (<b>B</b>) Analysis of a wound healing assay of DA3 cells treated with HGF/SF. Strain rate, directionality and coordination were recorded as function from the wound edge for 3 time intervals: 0–100, 100–200 and 200–300 minutes. Note that strain rate (green) precedes directionality (blue) and coordination (red). (<b>C</b>) The general schema: acceleration and stretching (morphological deformation) followed by increased directionality and enhanced coordination. (<b>D</b>) Single vs. Group HGF/SF-Induced migration. Sketch of a different phenomenon observed in single <i>vs.</i> collective migration as a response to HGF/SF. Upon treatment, non-confluent cells accelerate, spread and scatter, whereas confluent monolayers accelerate, deform to a more elongated morphology and amplify intercellular coordination. This transition from low- to high-coordination in the single-cell and collective settings is of great interest for future studies.