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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

In vitro Cell Migration and Invasion Assays
Published on: June 1, 2014
Paper-based Transwell assays: an inexpensive alternative to study cellular invasion
Rachael M Kenney1, Adam Loeser1, Nathan A Whitman1
1Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 South Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290, USA. mlockett@unc.edu.
Abstract:
Cellular movement is essential in the formation and maintenance of healthy tissues as well as in disease progression such as tumor metastasis. In this work, we describe a paper-based Transwell assay capable of quantifying cellular invasion through an extracellular matrix. The paper-based Transwell assays generate similar datasets, with equivalent reproducibility, to commercially available Transwell assays. With different culture configurations, we quantify invasion: upon addition of an exogenous factor or in the presence of medium obtained from other cell types, in an indirect or direct co-culture format whose medium composition is dynamically changing, and in a single-zone or parallel (96-zone) format.
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