3D model to investigate bone tissue cancer cell invasion
December 2014
The George Washington University, Washington, USA
Currently used in vitro models of breast cancer bone metastasis fail in reliably reproducing the complexity of cancer cell invasion, which involves several limitations that hinder the possibilities of reliably translating new findings to clinical applications. Here, a 3D biomimetic bone tissue model is developed using hydroxyapatite and induced human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells within a chitosan hydrogel to culture or co-culture human breast cancer cells. The researchers were able to elucidate the best combination of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite on chitosan scaffolds to maximise breast cancer cell adhesion and provide a platform that can reproduce biological interactions between cancer cells and the bone microenvironment. Furthermore, the results showed that the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells could induce upregulation of metastasis-associated genes in breast cancer cells when co-cultured together. Overall, this study describes a new in vitro model that can replicate bone tissue microenvironment and opens the door to new therapeutical discoveries through the study of the mechanisms underlying breast cancer bone metastasis.
Engineering a biomimetic three-dimensional nanostructured bone model for breast cancer bone metastasis study
Lijie Grace Zhang
Added on: 10-26-2021
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1742706114005728[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
