In vivo bioengineered ovarian tumors based on collagen, matrigel, alginate and agarose hydrogels: a comparative study

Scaffold-based tumor engineering is rapidly evolving the study of cancer progression. However, the effects of scaffolds and environment on tumor formation have seldom been investigated. In this study, four types of injectable hydrogels, namely, collagen type I, Matrigel, alginate and agarose gels, were loaded with human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells and then injected into nude mice subcutaneously. The growth of the tumors in vitro was also investigated. After four weeks, the specimens were harvested and analyzed. We found that tumor formation by SKOV3 cells was best supported by collagen, followed by Matrigel, alginate, control (without scaffold) and agarose in vivo. The collagen I group exhibited a larger tumor volume with increased neovascularization and increased necrosis compared with the other materials. Further, increased MMP activity, upregulated expression of laminin and fibronectin and higher levels of HIF-1 alpha and VEGF-A in the collagen group revealed that the engineered tumor is closer to human ovarian carcinoma. In order, collagen, Matrigel, alginate, control (without scaffold) and agarose exhibited decreases in tumor formation. All evidence indicated that the in vivo engineered tumor is scaffold-dependent. Bioactive hydrogels are superior to inert hydrogels at promoting tumor regeneration. In particular, biomimetic hydrogels are advantageous because they provide a microenvironment that mimics the ECM of natural tumors. On the other hand, typical features of cancer cells and the expression of genes related to cancer malignancy were far less similar to the natural tumor in vitro, which indicated the importance of culture environment in vivo. Superior to the in vitro culture, nude mice can be considered satisfactory in vivo 'bioreactors' for the screening of favorable cell vehicles for tumor engineering in vitro.