Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment (Sep 2024)

Establishment of an Three-Dimensional Vascularized Micro-Tumor Model and Screening of Chemotherapeutic Drugs

  • Qian Ye MD,
  • Juanru Wang BS,
  • Boyang Wang BS,
  • Min Zhao BS,
  • Zhengsheng Wu PhD,
  • Xiaoli Liu PhD

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/15330338241286755
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23

Abstract

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Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide, and major challenges in its treatment include drug resistance and metastasis. Three-dimensional cell culture systems have received widespread attention in drug discovery studies but existing models have limitations, that warrant the development of a simple and repeatable three-dimensional culture model for high-throughput screening. In this study, we designed a simple, reproducible, and highly efficient microencapsulated device to co-culture MCF-7 cells and HUVECs in microcapsules to establish an in vitro vascularized micro-tumor model for chemotherapeutic drug screening. First, to construct a three-dimensional micro-tumor model, cell encapsulation devices were created using three different sizes of flat-mouthed needles. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence assays were conducted to determine vascular lumen formation. Cell proliferation was detected using the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Finally, to observe the drug reactions between the models, anticancer drugs (doxorubicin or paclitaxel) were added 12 h after the two-dimensional cultured cells were plated or 7 days after cell growth in the core-shell microcapsules. Vascularized micro-tumors were obtained after 14 days of three-dimensional culture. The proliferation rate in the three-dimensional cultured cells was slower than that of two-dimensional cultured cells. Three-dimensional cultured cells were more resistant to anticancer drugs than two-dimensional cultured cells. This novel sample encapsulation device formed core-shell microcapsules and can be used to successfully construct 3D vascularized micro-tumors in vitro . The three-dimensional culture model may provide a platform for drug screening and is valuable for studying tumor development and angiogenesis.