Cell Migration and Invasion Assays

Migration assays were performed as previously described [37 (link)]. Cells were homogenized in the absence of plasma for 24 h, and then cultured at 1x10⁵ cells/well in 24-well Transwell plates with polycarbonate membrane inserts (Corning Inc., Corning, NY, USA). For the invasion assays, the membrane was coated with Matrigel (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and cells were cultured at 2x10⁵ cells/well. After incubation for 24 hours, the cells were fixed with 100% methanol and stained with 0.05% crystal violet. Five random fields were counted, and three independent experiments were conducted for each assay.