Microfluidic device to model heterogeneous tumours
2014
Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
There is a lack of knowledge on the effect of tumour subpopulations heterogeneity in tumour progression and invasion. Current in vitro models have severe limitations that impede the correct modelling of intratumour heterogeneity in vitro. Here, a novel microfluidic system is developed to study two different human breast cancer cell lines co-cultured in extracellular matrix scaffolds that mimic the tumour microenvironment. The results showed that intratumour heterogeneity increases cancer cell invasive behaviour depending on the neighbouring extracellular matrices. Moreover, this system allowed to elucidate the cellular dynamics that initiate and drive cell invasion through the interplay between different cancer cell subpopulations and the influence of cellular heterogeneity in enhancing the metastatic potential. Overall, the researchers develop a new microfluidic system that allows studying metastasis mechanisms in a relevant in vitro system that can replicate in vivo features of heterogeneous tumours.
Intratumoral phenotypic heterogeneity as an encourager of cancer invasion
Seok Chung
Added on: 10-19-2021
[1] https://academic.oup.com/ib/article-abstract/6/7/654/5199055[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
