一种具有可调刚度的合成水凝胶,用于构建胰腺癌类器官和药物测试。
A Synthetic Hydrogel with Tunable Stiffness for Engineering Pancreatic Cancer Organoids and Drug Testing.
作者信息
Tao Tingting, Liu Haitao, Gan Zhongqiao, He Jia, Zhang Xu, Li Xianliang, Qin Jianhua
机构信息
Division of Biotechnology, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
出版信息
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2025 Aug 11;11(8):5000-5011. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.5c00705. Epub 2025 Jul 26.
Pancreatic cancer organoids (PCOs) have gained extensive attention as promising in vitro models that can advance our understanding of translational cancer biology and biomedical research. To date, PCOs are mostly cultured in animal-derived matrices, which are limited by their low similarity with native tumors due to batch-to-batch variations, stringent operating conditions, and uncontrollable physicochemical properties. Here, we developed a more controllable hydrogel matrix comprising sodium alginate (NaA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) that can mimic the mechanical properties of native tumor tissue, such as extracellular matrix (ECM) components and stiffness. The PCOs cultured in the hydrogel matrix exhibited similar viability and growth rate with that in commercial Matrigel. Furthermore, we observed improvements of PCOs in 1% NaA-HA hydrogel matrices over tumor-specific features observed previously in animal-derived matrices. Transcriptional analysis revealed the activation of signaling pathways associated with ECM organization in the PCOs generated in hydrogel. Moreover, we noted that the biomimetic stiffness of hydrogel enhanced the drug resistance of PCOs of conventional chemotherapy agents but improved the sensitivity to targeted antitumor drugs (Erlotinib) of the PCOs with EGFR mutation. This work represents foundation for the customizing hydrogel stiffness that can be utilized to mimic the native tumor tissue, as well as a new platform for performing pancreatic cancer research and antitumor drug screening in the future.
胰腺癌类器官(PCOs)作为一种有前景的体外模型,能够推动我们对转化癌症生物学和生物医学研究的理解,因而受到了广泛关注。迄今为止,PCOs大多在动物源性基质中培养,由于批次间差异、严格的操作条件以及不可控的物理化学性质,这些基质与天然肿瘤的相似度较低。在此,我们开发了一种更可控的水凝胶基质,其由海藻酸钠(NaA)和透明质酸(HA)组成,能够模拟天然肿瘤组织的力学性能,如细胞外基质(ECM)成分和硬度。在水凝胶基质中培养的PCOs表现出与在商业基质胶中培养的PCOs相似的活力和生长速率。此外,我们观察到在1% NaA-HA水凝胶基质中的PCOs在肿瘤特异性特征方面比之前在动物源性基质中观察到的有所改善。转录分析揭示了在水凝胶中生成的PCOs中与ECM组织相关的信号通路的激活。此外,我们注意到水凝胶的仿生硬度增强了PCOs对传统化疗药物的耐药性,但提高了具有EGFR突变的PCOs对靶向抗肿瘤药物(厄洛替尼)的敏感性。这项工作为定制可用于模拟天然肿瘤组织的水凝胶硬度奠定了基础,同时也为未来进行胰腺癌研究和抗肿瘤药物筛选提供了一个新平台。