Novel testing platform designed for breast cancer cells

Date:
October 6, 2020
Source:
Purdue University
Summary:
A team has developed a novel testing platform to evaluate how breast
cancer cells respond to the recurrent stretching that occurs in
the lungs during breathing. The technology is designed to better
understand the effects that the local tissue has on metastatic
breast cancer to study how metastases grow in a new tissue.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A Purdue University team has developed a novel testing platform to
evaluate how breast cancer cells respond to the recurrent stretching
that occurs in the lungs during breathing. The technology is designed
to better understand the effects that the local tissue has on metastatic
breast cancer to study how metastases grow in a new tissue.


==========================================================================
"One of the key features of breast cancer is that most patients survive if
the disease stays local, but there is a greater than 70% drop in survival
if the cells have metastasized," said Luis Solorio, a Purdue assistant professor of engineering, who co-led the research team. "However, once
the cells leave the primary tumor, they are often no longer responsive
to the drugs that initially worked for the patient. We wanted to develop
a system that could help us better understand how the physiology of a
new tissue space effected tumor cells upon invasion into the new organ."
The Purdue researchers created a magnetically moving cell culturing system where the cancer cells can be grown in 3D on a suspended extracellular
matrix protein that is abundant in early metastatic lung tissue in order
to evaluate the impact of mechanical forces.

They were able to incorporate the strain amplitude and rate of breathing
in this tissue mimic. The researchers found that the cells quit dividing
under these conditions. The research is published in Advanced Functional Materials.

"Never before has the concept of motion been interrogated as a component
of the tumor microenvironment," said Michael Wendt, a Purdue associate professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology. "We now
understand that healthy organs utilize motion to resist metastatic colonization. The development of this microactuator system will not only continue to yield increased biological understanding, of metastasis, but
it will also serve as a platform for us to better evaluate pharmacological inhibitors of the most lethal aspect of cancer progression." Hyowon
"Hugh" Lee, an associate professor of engineering and a researcher at
the Birck Nanotechnology Center, co-led the research team.

"This is the first attempt to engineer a cell culture system that
can apply mechanical forces on a suspended tissue," Lee said. "Most
bioreactors with mechanical stimulation capabilities rely on growing
2D cell culture on flat non-biological substrates, but we are using a
custom magnetic actuator and suspending a layer of fibronectin to grow
3D cancer cells like a miniature tissue.

"Our system better mimics the physiological environment without using artificial substrates. Using this platform, we show that certain cancer
cells slow down their proliferation due to the cyclic stretching
of breathing." This work was the collaboration of five different
laboratories to characterize the mechanical and biological properties
of the new device.

Sarah Calve, a Purdue adjunct professor of biomedical engineering,
and Adrian Buganza Tepole, a Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering, interfaced with the mechanical characteristics of the
stretching protein. They measured the response of the material to
stretching and developing a mapping of the strains felt by the cancer
cells at various locations on the device.

Angel Enriquez, a doctoral student in Lee's lab, said, "One key takeaway
has been the benefits of collaboration with people outside of your
field of expertise and how they can provide more complete research."
Sarah Libring, a doctoral student and a co-first author from Solorio's
Lab, said, "It's been amazing to be part of the development of a new
device like this because by bringing together the expertise of multiple professors and multiple labs, we are now able to study cancer cells
on dynamically moving fibronectin fibrils that hasn't been previously possible."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Purdue_University. Original written
by Chris Adam. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. A'ngel Enri'quez, Sarah Libring, Tyler C. Field, Julian Jimenez,
Taeksang
Lee, Hyunsu Park, Douglas Satoski, Michael K. Wendt,
Sarah Calve, Adrian Buganza Tepole, Luis Solorio, Hyowon
Lee. High‐Throughput Magnetic Actuation Platform
for Evaluating the Effect of Mechanical Force on 3D Tumor
Microenvironment. Advanced Functional Materials, 2020; 2005021 DOI:
10.1002/adfm.202005021 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201006091246.htm

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