title: Cell migration and invasion assays.
abstract: A number of in vitro assays have been developed to study tumor cell motility. Historically, assays have been mainly monocellular, where carcinoma cells are studied in isolation. Scratch assays can be used to study the collective and directional movement of populations of cells, whereas two chamber assays lend themselves to the analysis of chemotactic/haptotactic migration and cell invasion. However, an inherent disadvantage of these assays is that they grossly oversimplify the complex process of invasion, lacking the tumor structural architecture and stromal components. Organotypic assays, where tumor cells are grown at an air/liquid interface on gels populated with stromal cells, are a more physiologically relevant method for studying 3-dimensional tumor invasion.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Sciences Division, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: Karwan A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Moutasim
authors.forename: Maria L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Nystrom
authors.forename: Gareth J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness