In vitro Cell Invasion Assay

Tumor cell migration/invasion is one of the key steps in the tumor progression. The metastatic potential of tumor cells is largely dependent on their ability to degradate and migrate through extracellular matrix. In vitro cell invasion assay from Innoprot is a Boyden Chamber assay. Boyden Chambers consist of a cell culture insert nested in the well of cell culture plate. We seed the cells onto matrigel or gelatin-coated inserts with 8.0 μm pores placing on top of 2-cm² wells containing culture media. These proteins occlude 8μm pores and cells need an active enzymatic degradation for moving through the pores. After a certain time, we fix, stain and quantify migrated cells using microplate reader. Depending on the number of migrated cells counted, test compounds would induce or inhibit cell invasion. Conditioned medium is also collected to measure Metaloproteases (MMP-2 & MMP-9) by zimography.

A panel of more than 60 tumor cell lines are available at Innoprot to perform this assay, so you can select your cell line in the panel or provide information about any other required cell line.