Microdevices for cancer stem cell culture as a predictive chemotherapeutic response platform

AGÜERO, EDUARDO IMANOL; BELGOROSKY, DENISE; ISRAEL GARCÍA-SILVA; BOOTH, R; LERNER, BETIANA; PÉREZ, MAXIMILIANO SEBASTIAN; EIJÁN, ANA MARÍA

Journal of Molecular Medicine

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH

Año: 2023 vol. 101 p. 1465 - 1475

Microfluidic platforms for clinical use are a promising translational strategy for cancer research specially for drug screening.Identifying cancer stem cells (CSC) using sphere culture techniques in microfluidic devices (MDs) showed to be betterreproducing physiological responses than other in vitro models and allow the optimization of samples and reagents. We evaluatedindividual sphere proliferation and stemness toward chemotherapeutic treatment (CT) with doxorubicin and cisplatin inbladder cancer cell lines (MB49-I and J82) cultured in MDs used as CSC treatment response platform. Our results confirmthe usefulness of this device to evaluate the CT effect in sphere-forming efficiency, size, and growth rate from individualspheres within MDs and robust information comparable to conventional culture plates was obtained. The expression of pluripotencygenetic markers (Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, and CD44) could be analyzed by qPCR and immunofluorescence in spheresgrowing directly in MDs. MDs are a suitable platform for sphere isolation from tumor samples and can provide informationabout CT response. Microfluidic-based CSC studies could provide information about treatment response of cancer patientsfrom small samples and can be a promising tool for CSC-targeted specific treatment with potential in precision medicine.