3D multicellular microfluidic model to study metastases mechanisms
December 2013
IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milano, Italy(1)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA(2)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA(2)
Cancer metastases are complex phenomena that begin with the extravasation of circulating tumor cells. Additionally, certain tumor cells seem to specifically target certain organs, thus complex in vitro models are needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this process. Here, a 3D microfluidic model is used to investigate the interactions between human endothelial cells, osteo-cells differentiated from bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and human adenocarcinoma cancer cells and to study the transendothelial migration of metastatic cells into a bone-like environment. The presence of osteo-cells induced an increase in extravasation and migration distance of cancer cells, which resulted in the formation of micrometastases. Furthermore, a breast cancer cell receptor and a bone-secreted chemokine were identified to play a major role in this process. Overall, the researchers propose a complex multicellular 3D microfluidic model that can be used to decipher the metastatic mechanisms and the main factors involved in a human context.
A microfluidic 3D in vitro model for specificity of breast cancer metastasis to bone
Matteo Moretti(1), Roger D Kamm(2)
Added on: 10-06-2021
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0142961213014038[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
