Matrix stiffness can regulate cancer cell invasion
2018
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
Breast cancer brain metastasis is a fatal process in the late stages of breast cancer that rapidly leads to death. One of the critical factors mediating brain invasion is the physicochemical cues of the brain microenvironment and how they modulate tumor cells. However, the mechanisms underlying these interactions remain unclear due to the difficulties of accurately replicating the brain microenvironment in vitro. Here, a hyaluronic acid hydrogel platform is used to assess the influence of matrix stiffness on a brain metastasizing variant of a triple-negative breast cancer cell line. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between cell invasion and hydrogel stiffness. Additionally, the signalling pathway activated by the response to matrix stiffness was identified. Overall, the researchers develop a tunable system that allows elucidating the mechanisms that modulate cancer cell metastatic behaviour that depends on matrix stiffness and demonstrates that the mechanical properties of the tumor microenvironments can influence cancer progression.
The influence of matrix stiffness on the behavior of brain metastatic breast cancer cells in a biomimetic hyaluronic acid hydrogel platform
Shreyas S Rao
Added on: 11-01-2021
[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jbm.a.36379[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
