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The Tumor Microenvironment

The Tumor Microenvironment

Every normal cell or tissue is embedded in a complex local environment called stroma, consisting of different cell types, a basal membrane, and blood vessels. As normal cells mutate and develop into cancer cells, their local environment also changes to allow cancer progression. The tumor microenvironment (TME) consists of a complex cellular matrix of stromal cells and the developing tumor. The cross-talk between cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells is critical to disrupt normal tissue...

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Direct Bioprinting of 3D Multicellular Breast Spheroids onto Endothelial Networks

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Bioprinting the Cancer Microenvironment.

Yu Shrike Zhang¹, Margaux Duchamp², Rahmi Oklu³

¹Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.

ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering

|March 3, 2017

Summary

Bioprinting creates advanced 3D cancer models that better mimic tumor complexity and microenvironments. These biomimetic models improve cancer research, drug screening, and understanding of cancer development and metastasis.

Keywords:

bioprinting cancer biology cancer model drug screening vascularization

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Area of Science:

Oncology
Biofabrication
Biomedical Engineering

Background:

Cancer involves complex cellular and microenvironmental interactions crucial for progression.
Traditional 2D and 3D cancer models lack vascularization and fail to replicate tumor complexity.
Limitations hinder their use in drug screening and fundamental cancer biology research.

Purpose of the Study:

To review bioprinting strategies for creating advanced cancer models.
To highlight the role of bioprinting in mimicking the tumor microenvironment.
To discuss the application of bioprinting in cancer research and drug development.

Main Methods:

Review of current literature on bioprinting techniques for cancer modeling.
Analysis of bioink selection for replicating tumor matrix properties.
Discussion of methods for bioprinting vascular structures within cancer models.

Main Results:

Bioprinting enables high-resolution 3D structure creation for biomimetic cancer models.
Advanced models accurately recreate cancer microenvironment complexity, including vascularization.
Bioprinted models show promise for studying cancer genesis, metastasis, and drug responses.

Conclusions:

Bioprinting offers a versatile platform for developing sophisticated cancer models.
These models overcome limitations of conventional approaches, enhancing cancer research applications.
Future perspectives focus on further refining bioprinted cancer models for clinical relevance.