While preclinical models such as orthotopic tumors generated in mice from patient-derived specimens are widely used to predict sensitivity or therapeutic interventions for cancer, such xenografts can be slow, require extensive infrastructure, and can make in situ assessment difficult. Such concerns are heightened in highly aggressive cancers, such as glioblastoma (GBM), that display genetic diversity and short mean survival. Biomimetic biomaterial technologies offer an approach to create ex vivo models that reflect biophysical features of the tumor microenvironment (TME). We describe a microfluidic templating approach to generate spatially graded hydrogels containing patient-derived GBM cells to explore drug efficacy and resistance mechanisms.
Keyphrases
- genetic diversity
- tissue engineering
- induced apoptosis
- drug delivery
- hyaluronic acid
- papillary thyroid
- drug release
- cell cycle arrest
- cell therapy
- extracellular matrix
- small molecule
- high throughput
- wound healing
- squamous cell
- physical activity
- high fat diet induced
- circulating tumor cells
- single cell
- childhood cancer
- cell death
- oxidative stress
- signaling pathway
- metabolic syndrome
- stem cells
- squamous cell carcinoma
- type diabetes
- young adults
- emergency department
- skeletal muscle
- pi k akt
- fine needle aspiration