Human Breast Extracellular Matrix Microstructures and Protein Hydrogel 3D Cultures of Mammary Epithelial Cells

Tissue extracellular matrix (ECM) is a structurally and compositionally unique microenvironment within which native cells can perform their natural biological activities. Cells grown on artificial substrata differ biologically and phenotypically from those grown within their native tissue microenvir...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2021-11, Vol.13 (22), p.5857
Main Authors: Keller, Chandler R., Hu, Yang, Ruud, Kelsey F., VanDeen, Anika E., Martinez, Steve R., Kahn, Barry T., Zhang, Zhiwu, Chen, Roland K., Li, Weimin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial substrata
Atomic force microscopy
Bioengineering
Biology
Biomedical materials
Breast cancer
Cell culture
Cell growth
Collagen
Collagen (type I)
Epithelial cells
Ethanol
Extracellular matrix
Hydrogels
Immunofluorescence
Invasiveness
Learning algorithms
Machine learning
Mammary gland
Mechanical properties
Medical research
Microenvironments
Microscopy
Mimicry
Phenotypes
Polyethylene glycol
Proteins
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Tissue extracellular matrix (ECM) is a structurally and compositionally unique microenvironment within which native cells can perform their natural biological activities. Cells grown on artificial substrata differ biologically and phenotypically from those grown within their native tissue microenvironment. Studies examining human tissue ECM structures and the biology of human tissue cells in their corresponding tissue ECM are lacking. Such investigations will improve our understanding about human pathophysiological conditions for better clinical care. We report here human normal breast tissue and invasive ductal carcinoma tissue ECM structural features. For the first time, a hydrogel was successfully fabricated using whole protein extracts of human normal breast ECM. Using immunofluorescence staining of type I collagen (Col I) and machine learning of its fibrous patterns in the polymerized human breast ECM hydrogel, we have defined the microstructural characteristics of the hydrogel and compared the microstructures with those of other native ECM hydrogels. Importantly, the ECM hydrogel supported 3D growth and cell-ECM interaction of both normal and cancerous mammary epithelial cells. This work represents further advancement toward full reconstitution of the human breast tissue microenvironment, an accomplishment that will accelerate the use of human pathophysiological tissue-derived matrices for individualized biomedical research and therapeutic development.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers13225857