3D microfluidic device to investigate metastasis mechanisms
2017
Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China
Collective cell migration towards surrounding tissues is the first step of metastasis and an important obstacle for cancer therapy efficiency. However, the mechanisms behind this process remain elusive and in vitro models fail to recapitulate it in a real-time manner. Here, a 3D microfluidic model of human breast cancer cells is developed to recapitulate cell invasion by establishing a gradient of fetal bovine serum. The results showed that cancer cells adopted a collective movement to invade the extracellular matrix. Furthermore, leading cells had an increased expression of Aurora kinase family protein and, when inhibited, it was possible to disrupt the collective cohort formation. In this study, the researchers develop a 3D model that can reliably recapitulate some aspects of collective cell invasion and shows to be useful to study the mechanisms underlying this process, which could elucidate new potential therapeutic targets to block metastasis.
Inhibition of AURKA kinase activity suppresses collective invasion in a microfluidic cell culture platform
Quentin Liu
Added on: 10-12-2021
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02623-1[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
