Lucas Höne

Master Student

Study of Mechanical Stimulation of Cancer Cells Confined within a 3D Tumor-like Environment

Betreuer: Dr. Aldo Leal-Egaña, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini

This Master thesis is carried out as a part of the research project named “Development of a novel Cancer-on-a-Chip”, which is focused on the performance of an artificial platform, mimicking the neoplastic niche. One of the goals of this project is to generate a tumor-like scaffold with biodegradability, cell-matrix adhesion and 3D mechanical stimulation [1]. To this purpose, alginate based microcapsules will be generated with elasticity mimicking healthy and tumoral tissues, containing immobilized tumor cell lines. The final aim of this project is to determine the influence of the mechanical stimulation on cell invasiveness and metastatic potential, according to methods previously established on this field [2-3].

[1] Sarker, B., Rompf, J., Silva, R., Lang, N., Detsch, R., Kaschta, J., Alginate-based hydrogels with improved adhesive properties for cell encapsulation. International journal of biological macromolecules (2015) 78, S. 72–78.

[2] Leal-Egaña, A., Fritsch, A., Heidebrecht, F., Diaz-Cuenca, A., Nowicki, M., Bader, A., Kas, J., Tuning liver stiffness against tumours. An in vitro study using entrapped cells in tumour-like microcapsules. Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials (2012) 9, S. 113–121.

[3] Leal-Egaña, A., Letort, G., Martiel, J.-L., Christ, A., Vignaud, T., Roelants, C., Filhol, O., Théry, M., The size-speed-force relationship governs migratory cell response to tumorigenic factors. Molecular Biology of the Cell (2017), (in the press, DOI: 10.1091/mbc.E16-10-0694)