Enrichment of Cancer Cells Based on Antibody-Free Selective Cell Adhesion

Blood-compatible and cell-adhering polymer materials are extremely useful for regenerative medicine and disease diagnosis. (Meth)acryl polymers with high hydrophilicity have been widely used in industries, and attempts to apply these polymers in the medical field are frequently reported. We focused on crosslinked polymer films prepared using bifunctional monomers, which are widely used as coating materials, and attempted to alter the cell adhesion behavior while maintaining blood compatibility by changing the chemical structure of the crosslinker. Four bifunctional monomers were studied, three of which were found to be blood-compatible polymers and to suppress platelet adhesion. The adhesion behavior of cancer cells to polymer films varied; moreover, the cancer model cells MCF-7 [EpCAM(+)] and MDA-MB-231 [EpCAM (-)], with different expression levels of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), showed distinct adhesion behavior for each material. We suggest that a combination of these materials has the potential to selectively capture and enrich highly metastatic cancer cells.