Electrospun Fibrous Scaffolds Promote Breast Cancer Cell Alignment and Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition

• Published in: Langmuir 2012-01, Vol.28 (4), p.2028-2034
• Main Authors: Saha, Sharmistha, Duan, Xinrui, Wu, Laying, Lo, Pang-Kuo, Chen, Hexin, Wang, Qian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cell Line, Tumor; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition - drug effects; Extracellular Matrix - drug effects; Humans; Mice; Nanotechnology - methods; Phenotype; Polyesters - chemistry; Polyesters - pharmacology; Signal Transduction - drug effects; Tissue Scaffolds - chemistry; Transforming Growth Factor beta - metabolism; Tumor Microenvironment - drug effects
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la203846w

In this work we created electrospun fibrous scaffolds with random and aligned fiber orientations in order to mimic the three-dimensional structure of the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). The rigidity and topography of the ECM environment have been reported to alter cancer cell behavior. However, the complexity of the in vivo system makes it difficult to isolate and study such extracellular topographical cues that trigger cancer cells’ response. Breast cancer cells were cultured on these fibrous scaffolds for 3–5 days. The cells showed elongated spindle-like morphology in the aligned fibers, whereas they maintained a mostly flat stellar shape in the random fibers. Gene expression profiling of these cells post seeding showed up-regulation of transforming growth factor β-1 (TGFβ-1) along with other mesenchymal biomarkers, suggesting that these cells undergo epithelial–mesenchymal transitions in response to the polymer scaffold. The results of this study indicate that the topographical cue may play a significant role in tumor progression.