By mimicking in-vivo environments, 3D cell culture models appear nowadays as the best in-vitro study model to work in an in-vivo like study model and to obtain more physiologically relevant data and proof of concept as close as possible to “a clinical context” (aka the “near-human” approach).

3D cell culture chip – AIM Biotech tebu-bio – near-human approaches

To accompany researchers along this way, there are several innovative cell culture devices (available in Europe through tebu-bio), and more specifically a modular microfluidic platform for 3D cell culture with the capability to monitor complex biological systems dynamics in response to tuned microenvironment: the 3D Cell culture chip (Aim Biotech)

In previous posts, we have seen the role of inflammation and glycosylation in the tumour microenvironment (TME). All these are mainly factors at the protein level causing the tumour cells to evade the immune system and metastasise. But what about other factors?

One of the areas that has raised quite some interest recently are microRNAs (miRNAs). If you’d like to brush up your knowledge on miRNAs, you might be interested in this post by my colleague Paola Vecino. miRNAs are becoming trendy, as they seem to be involved in several disease mechanisms (not only in cancer, but also in some other pathologies, including some inflammatory diseases), and they can be used as diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers.

In vivo monitoring of tumor growth and metastasis provides a powerful means for studying cancer properties and development of effective therapies. Mouse models created with tumor xenografts, resulting from subcutaneous or tail vein injection of cells, have long been used for such purposes. However, without a convenient means to visualize cancer progression in these animals, invasive surgical procedures are required in order to estimate the size and weight of primary and metastatic tumors, and cannot be used for early stages in tumor development. Surgery often requires sacrificing the animals, leading to the need for large numbers of individuals and increasing the cost and risk of sampling errors.

GeneCopoeia has recently announced the introduction of pre-made cancer cell lines labeled with GFP, and pre-made cancer cell lines dual-labeled with luciferase and GFP. A new powerful and sensitive mathods to follow tumor growth & metastasis in vivo!

Cancer research is increasingly focusing on the tumour microenvironment (TME). Several studies have shown that tumours depend on external signals for maintenance and expansion. It is therefore needed to have a deeper knowledge of the cross-talk between tumour cells in the stroma (fibroblasts, adipocytes, endothelial cells and macrophages) and their microenvironment which also includes the study of interactions between cancer cells and cancer stem cells. TME studies also involve soluble factors, signaling molecules, extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) and other factors that help the tumour grow and invade other tissues, protect it from the host immune system, and contributes to therapeutic resistance in some cases (1). In a previous post, we discussed the role of Cox-2 signaling and PGE2 in TME. Also, we have already discussed the role of inflammation and the modification of the host’s immune response by cancer cells.

Today, we would like to focus on how TME affects the glycosylation of proteins involved in tumour progression.