Chronic disease or injury of the vasculature impairs the functionality of vascular wall cells particularly in their ability to migrate and repair vascular surfaces. Under pathologic conditions, vascular endothelial cells (ECs) lose their non-thrombogenic properties and decrease their motility. Alternatively, vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) may increase motility and proliferation, leading to blood vessel luminal invasion. Current therapies to prevent subsequent blood vessel occlusion commonly mechanically injure vascular cells leading to endothelial denudation and smooth muscle cell luminal migration. Due to this dichotomous migratory behavior, a need exists for modulating vascular cell growth and migration in a more targeted manner. Here, we examine the efficacy of utilizing small direct current electric fields to influence vascular cell-specific migration (“galvanotaxis”). We designed, fabricated, and implemented an in vitro chamber for tracking vascular cell migration direction, distance, and displacement under galvanotactic influence of varying magnitude. Our results indicate that vascular ECs and SMCs have differing responses to galvanotaxis; ECs exhibit a positive correlation of anodal migration while SMCs exhibit minimal change in directional migration in relation to the electric field direction. SMCs exhibit less motility response (i.e. distance traveled in 4 h) compared to ECs, but SMCs show a significantly higher motility at low electric potentials (80 mV/cm). With further investigation and translation, galvanotaxis may be an effective solution for modulation of vascular cell-specific migration, leading to enhanced endothelialization, with coordinate reduced smooth muscle in-migration.

脉管系统的慢性疾病或损伤会损害血管壁细胞的功能，特别是其迁移和修复血管表面的能力。在病理条件下，血管内皮细胞（EC）失去其非血栓形成特性并降低其运动能力。另外，血管平滑肌细胞（SMC）可能会增加运动和增殖，导致血管腔侵入。目前防止随后血管闭塞的疗法通常会机械损伤血管细胞，导致内皮剥脱和平滑肌细胞管腔迁移。由于这种二分的迁移行为，需要以更有针对性的方式调节血管细胞生长和迁移。在这里，我们研究了利用小直流电场影响血管细胞特异性迁移（“趋电性”）的功效。我们设计、制造和实现了一个体外室，用于在不同程度的趋电影响下跟踪血管细胞迁移方向、距离和位移。我们的结果表明血管内皮细胞和平滑肌细胞对趋电流有不同的反应。EC 表现出阳极迁移的正相关性，而 SMC 表现出与电场方向相关的方向迁移的最小变化。与 EC 相比，SMC 表现出较低的运动响应（即 4 小时内移动的距离），但 SMC 在低电位 (80 mV/cm) 下表现出明显更高的运动性。通过进一步的研究和转化，趋电性可能是调节血管细胞特异性迁移的有效解决方案，从而增强内皮化，同时减少平滑肌迁移。