Microfluidic platform for studying osteocyte mechanoregulation of breast cancer bone metastasis

Bone metastasis is a common, yet serious, complication of breast cancer. Breast cancer cells that extravasate from blood vessels to the bone devastate bone quality by interacting with bone cells and disrupting the bone remodeling balance. Although exercise is often suggested as a cancer intervention strategy and mechanical loading during exercise is known to regulate bone remodeling, its role in preventing bone metastasis remains unknown. We developed a novel in vitro microfluidic tissue model to investigate the role of osteocytes in the mechanical regulation of breast cancer bone metastasis. Metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were cultured inside a 3D microfluidic lumen lined with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), which is adjacent to a channel seeded with osteocyte-like MLO-Y4 cells. Physiologically relevant oscillatory fluid flow (OFF) (1 Pa, 1 Hz) was applied to mechanically stimulate the osteocytes. Hydrogel-filled side channels in-between the two channels allowed real-time, bi-directional cellular signaling and cancer cell extravasation over 3 days. The applied OFF was capable of inducing intracellular calcium responses in osteocytes (82.3% cells responding with a 3.71 fold increase average magnitude). Both extravasation distance and percentage of extravasated side-channels were significantly reduced with mechanically stimulated osteocytes (32.4% and 53.5% of control, respectively) compared to static osteocytes (102.1% and 107.3% of control, respectively). This is the first microfluidic device that has successfully integrated stimulatory bone fluid flow, and demonstrated that mechanically stimulated osteocytes reduced breast cancer extravasation. Future work with this platform will determine the specific mechanisms involved in osteocyte mechanoregulation of breast cancer bone metastasis, as well as other types of cancer metastasis and diseases.