3D matrix to model breast cancer bone metastasis
2017
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Breast cancer is a highly prevalent disease with a bad prognosis in women. In many cases, breast cancer bone metastasis is a common step of cancer progression. However, the mechanisms that induce this invasive behaviour on this specific microenvironment are poorly understood. Current models have severe limitations in reproducing the key features of breast cancer cells interplay with bone tissue. In recent years, 3D models are becoming a popular choice due to their associated advantages in better replicating in vivo cell behaviour. Here, a poly-ether-urethane foam is used to build a 3D structure to study the interactions between human breast cancer cells and the bone microenvironment. The results showed that the foam matrix correctly supported the culture of human osteoblasts and their differentiation from human adipose-derived stem cells. Moreover, it was possible to co-culture them with breast cancer-derived tumor-initiating cells, which induced the generation of tumor aggregates. Overall, the researchers propose a new material to build matrices that support the generation of a 3D bone microenvironment in vitro to study the breast cancer cell invasion of bone tissue in a human context.
Polyurethane foam scaffold as in vitro model for breast cancer bone metastasis
Silvia Farè
Added on: 10-08-2021
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1742706117305809[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
