Development of a Bladder Cancer-on-a-Chip Model to Assess Bladder Cancer Cell Invasiveness

We have developed a bladder cancer-on-a-chip model which supports the 3D growth of cells and can be used to assess and quantify bladder cancer cell invasiveness in a physiologically appropriate environment. Three bladder cancer cell lines (T24, J82, and RT4) were resuspended in 50% Matrigel^® and grown within a multi-channel organ-on-a-chip system. The ability of live cells to invade across into an adjacent 50% Matrigel^®-only channel was assessed over a 2-day period. Cell lines isolated from patients with high-grade bladder cancer (T24 and J82) invaded across into the Matrigel^®-only channel at a much higher frequency compared to cells isolated from a patient with low-grade cancer (RT4) (p < 0.001). The T24 and J82 cells also invaded further distances into the Matrigel^®-only channel compared to the RT4 cells (p < 0.001). The cell phenotype within the model was maintained as assessed by cell morphology and immunohistochemical analysis of E-cadherin. Treatment with ATN-161, an α5β1 integrin inhibitor and well-known migrastatic drug, caused a dose-dependent decrease in the invasiveness of the J82 cells (p < 0.01). The combined data demonstrate that our bladder cancer-on-a-chip model supports the retention of the bladder cancer cell phenotype and can be used to reproducibly assess and quantify the invasiveness of live bladder cancer cells.