Cell Invasion

AIM 3D Cell Culture Chips are very useful for the study of 3D cell invasion and migration. The chips are not only suitable for endpoint measurement; it can monitor real time cell migration in response to a chemoattractant gradient, making cell trajectory information more readily available. The stimuli may include chemical entities, proteins, genetic regulators, mechanobiological factors, etc.

Unlike Boyden chambers, cell migration can be monitored in real-time and the experiment can be stopped at the optimal time. Cell migration speeds can be quantified easily in AIM chips by determining the distance traveled by cells over a given duration. Compared to scratch assays, AIM chips provide an unambiguous starting point before the cells start to migrate, which yields more reliable & reproducible data. Furthermore, instead of having cells migrate through foreign materials (in Boyden chamber assays) or on a 2D plastic substrate (in scratch or cell exclusion zone assays), AIM chips allow the cell migration or invasion to take place in a 3D matrix that is most relevant to your studies.

Cell Migration/Invasion

Protocols

The migration of breast cancer cells, MDA-MB-231 and fibrosarcoma cells, HT1080 are used as illustrative examples in the downloadable protocol below..

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Key References

  1. Immune targeting of triple-negative breast cancer through a clinically actionalbe STING agonist-CART cell platform. Zhang, Y., Li, Z., Ritter, J., Brea, E. J., Mahadevan, N. R., Dillon, D. A., … & Barbie, T. U. (2025). Cell Reports Medicine
  2. In vitro integration of a functional vasculature to model endothelial regulation of chemotherapy and T-cell immunotherapy in liver cancer. Vasudevan, J., Vijayakumar, R., Reales-Calderon, J. A., Lam, M. S., Ow, J. R., Aw, J., … & Pavesi, A. (2025). Biomaterials, 123175
  3. Intratumor heterogeneity of EGFR expression mediates targeted therapy resistance and formation of drug tolerant microenvironment. Alsaed, B., Lin, L., Son, J., Li, J., Smolander, J., Lopez, T., … & Haikala, H. M. (2025). Nature Communications, 16(1), 28
  4. Patient-specific vascularized tumor model: Blocking monocyte recruitment with multispecific antibodies targeting CCR2 and CSF-1R. Nguyen, H. T., Kan, E. L., Humayun, M., Gurvich, N., Offeddu, G. S., Wan, Z., … & Kamm, R. D. (2025). Biomaterials, 312, 122731
  5. Pericytes Promote More Vascularization than Stromal Cells via an Interleukin‐6‐Dependent Mechanism in Microfluidic Chips. Gonzalez‐Rubio, J., Kubiza, H., Xu, Y., Koenigs‐Werner, H., Schmitz, M. S., Schedel, M., … & Thiebes, A. L. (2025). Advanced Science, 2408131 
  6. Endocrine Therapy Synergizes with SMAC Mimetics to Potentiate Antigen Presentation and Tumor Regression in Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer. Hermida-Prado, F., Xie, Y., Sherman, S., Nagy, Z., Russo, D., Akhshi, T., … & Jeselsohn, R. (2023). Cancer research, 83(19), 3284-3304
  7. A Novel HER2-Selective Kinase Inhibitor Is Effective in HER2 Mutant and Amplified Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer. Son, J., Jang, J., Beyett, T. S., Eum, Y., Haikala, H. M., Verano, A., … & Jänne, P. A. (2022). Cancer research, 82(8), 1633-1645
  8. Catulin reporter marks a heterogeneous population of invasive breast cancer cells with some demonstrating plasticity and participating in vascular mimicry. Gielata, M., Karpińska, K., Gwiazdowska, A., Boryń, Ł., & Kobielak, A. (2022). Scientific Reports, 12(1), 12673
  9. Oncogenic activity of glucocorticoid receptor β is controlled by ubiquitination-dependent interaction with USP49 in glioblastoma cells. Hu, Y., Jiang, Y., Zhang, Z., Wang, J., Zhang, B., Gong, L., … & Yin, Y. (2022). Molecular Cancer Research, 20(1), 92-101
  10. Intrinsic Immunogenicity of Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Revealed by Its Cellular Plasticity. Mahadevan, N. R., Knelson, E. H., Wolff, J. O., Vajdi, A., Saigí, M., Campisi, M., … & Barbie, D. A. (2021).Cancer discovery, 11(8), 1952-1969

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