3D multicellular model to study the interactions between tumors and their microenvironment
Company 2015
Roche Innovation Center Penzberg, Penzberg, Germany
There is growing evidence that tumor microenvironment is a crucial element for tumor progression. Fibroblasts are the most abundant cells in tumor microenvironment and are key for tumor support, growth and metastasis. Thus, there is a need for in vitro models that can reproduce these features to investigate the mechanisms underlying these interactions. However, the 2D models currently available poorly represent this cross-talk. Here, a new 3D co-culture model is developed to study the direct cell-cell interplay between different human cancer cell lines and human fibroblasts or tumor-associated fibroblasts. The results showed that the co-culture of these cells increased the proliferation of several cancer cell lines and induced the expression of soluble factors in a cancer type-specific manner. The use of antibodies that impeded the function of these factors inhibited the increased cell proliferation of the co-cultures. Moreover, the presence of tumor-associated fibroblasts modified the response to therapeutic agents. In this study, the researchers develop a new model that replicates the support that fibroblasts provide for the tumor cells. The model can be used to study key mechanisms in the interactions between tumors and their associated microenvironments.
Fibroblasts influence survival and therapeutic response in a 3D co-culture model
Meher Majety
Added on: 10-03-2021
[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127948[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
