Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 17, Pages 6853-6856Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1102808108
Keywords
biological physics; oncology; microfabrication
Categories
Funding
- National Cancer Institute [1U54CA143803-01, U54CA143803]
- Carlsbergfondet
- Danish Council for Independent Research-Natural Sciences
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The metastatic invasion of cancer cells from primary tumors to distant ecological niches, rather than the primary tumors, is the cause of much cancer mortality [Zhang QB, et al. (2010) Int J Cancer 126:2534-2541; Chambers AF, Goss PE (2008) Breast Cancer Res 10: 114]. Metastasis is a three-dimensional invasion process where cells spread from their site of origin and colonize distant microen-vironmental niches. It is critical to be able to assess quantitatively the metastatic potential of cancer cells [Harma V, et al. (2010) PLoS ONE 5:e10431]. We have constructed a microfabricated chip with a three-dimensional topology consisting of lowlands and isolated square highlands (Tepuis), which stand hundreds of microns above the lowlands, in order to assess cancer cell metastatic potential as they invade the highlands. As a test case, the invasive ascents of the Tepui by highly metastatic PC-3 and noninvasive LNCaP prostate cancer cells were used. The vertical ascent by prostate cancer cells from the lowlands to the tops of the Tepui was imaged using confocal microscopy and used as a measure of the relative invasiveness. The less-metastatic cells (LNCaP) never populated all available tops, leaving about 15% of them unoccupied, whereas the more metastatic PC-3 cells occupied all available Tepuis. We argue that this distinct difference in invasiveness is due to contact inhibition.
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