Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing

Cancer accounts for most of the deaths in the world and it is mainly due to metastasis that makes treatment of cancer difficult. Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition plays an important role in tumour metastasis as well as in tumour recurrence, the conversion of epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ker, Sia Fong
Other Authors: Tan Lay Poh
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62467
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-62467
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-624672023-03-04T15:37:54Z Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing Ker, Sia Fong Tan Lay Poh School of Materials Science and Engineering DRNTU::Engineering::Materials Cancer accounts for most of the deaths in the world and it is mainly due to metastasis that makes treatment of cancer difficult. Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition plays an important role in tumour metastasis as well as in tumour recurrence, the conversion of epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells can result in the acquisition of migratory and invasive properties. There are numerous studies on how stiffness of extracellular matrix, signals from the environment, type of extracellular matrix and the presence of integrins can affect cell behavior and migration. However, there are limited studies looking at how the physical and material characteristics of the microenvironment affect the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition and Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition of highly invasive tumor cell lines. Conventional 2D cell culture models have also been proven to be inadequate in mimicking the environment of 3D native tissues. In response, a 3D culture model has been gradually gaining popularity among research groups due to its better representation of the microenvironment of living tissues. Therefore in this study, we propose a 3D biomimetic culture model constructed with 5% PEG 5% Gelatin matrix and collagen I matrix to study the EMT and MET transition in the human body environment. MDA-MB-231 cancer spheroids were then placed in the PEG + Gelatin matrix in a polyethylene terephthalate plastic construct before the addition of a collagen matrix layer at the top. From this study, we had found out that the design of the construct was suitable to mimic the EMT and MET phenomenon. However, there were a few limitations of the culture model. First, spheroids were not fully immersed in PEG + Gelatin matrix as they sunk into the collagen matrix when added. Also, the non-invading cancer cells in the spheroids facing the PEG + Gelatin matrix were suspected to have poor nutrient gradient and the inadequate presence of integrins in the matrix. Hence, future work or improvement to the 3D biomimetic culture model have to be done before we could fully understand whether EMT and MET of highly invasive tumor cell lines are critically determined by the physical and material characteristics of the microenvironment. Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering) 2015-04-08T03:03:52Z 2015-04-08T03:03:52Z 2015 2015 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62467 en Nanyang Technological University 37 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
spellingShingle DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
Ker, Sia Fong
Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
description Cancer accounts for most of the deaths in the world and it is mainly due to metastasis that makes treatment of cancer difficult. Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition plays an important role in tumour metastasis as well as in tumour recurrence, the conversion of epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells can result in the acquisition of migratory and invasive properties. There are numerous studies on how stiffness of extracellular matrix, signals from the environment, type of extracellular matrix and the presence of integrins can affect cell behavior and migration. However, there are limited studies looking at how the physical and material characteristics of the microenvironment affect the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition and Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition of highly invasive tumor cell lines. Conventional 2D cell culture models have also been proven to be inadequate in mimicking the environment of 3D native tissues. In response, a 3D culture model has been gradually gaining popularity among research groups due to its better representation of the microenvironment of living tissues. Therefore in this study, we propose a 3D biomimetic culture model constructed with 5% PEG 5% Gelatin matrix and collagen I matrix to study the EMT and MET transition in the human body environment. MDA-MB-231 cancer spheroids were then placed in the PEG + Gelatin matrix in a polyethylene terephthalate plastic construct before the addition of a collagen matrix layer at the top. From this study, we had found out that the design of the construct was suitable to mimic the EMT and MET phenomenon. However, there were a few limitations of the culture model. First, spheroids were not fully immersed in PEG + Gelatin matrix as they sunk into the collagen matrix when added. Also, the non-invading cancer cells in the spheroids facing the PEG + Gelatin matrix were suspected to have poor nutrient gradient and the inadequate presence of integrins in the matrix. Hence, future work or improvement to the 3D biomimetic culture model have to be done before we could fully understand whether EMT and MET of highly invasive tumor cell lines are critically determined by the physical and material characteristics of the microenvironment.
author2 Tan Lay Poh
author_facet Tan Lay Poh
Ker, Sia Fong
format Final Year Project
author Ker, Sia Fong
author_sort Ker, Sia Fong
title Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
title_short Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
title_full Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
title_fullStr Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
title_full_unstemmed Development of biomimetic 3D cancer platform for drug testing
title_sort development of biomimetic 3d cancer platform for drug testing
publishDate 2015
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62467
_version_ 1759858269295214592