Optical Microscopy and Analysis Laboratory, Office of Science and Technology Resources, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD, USA.
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA.
Commun Biol. 2021 Apr 15;4(1):477. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01954-0.
The tumor microenvironment (TME) is multi-cellular, spatially heterogenous, and contains cell-generated gradients of soluble molecules. Current cell-based model systems lack this complexity or are difficult to interrogate microscopically. We present a 2D live-cell chamber that approximates the TME and demonstrate that breast cancer cells and macrophages generate hypoxic and nutrient gradients, self-organize, and have spatially varying phenotypes along the gradients, leading to new insights into tumorigenesis.
肿瘤微环境（TME）是多细胞的，空间异质的，并包含细胞产生的可溶性分子梯度。目前的基于细胞的模型系统缺乏这种复杂性，或者难以进行微观研究。我们提出了一种 2D 活细胞室，可以模拟 TME，并证明乳腺癌细胞和巨噬细胞会产生缺氧和营养物质梯度，进行自我组织，并沿着梯度表现出空间变化的表型，从而为肿瘤发生提供了新的见解。
