In-vitro model to study cell-cell interaction

Abstract

There is a lack of experimental model to study the interactions of tumor versus normal cells. There are suggestions that certain genetic alterations, chemokines and growth factors has effect on tumor cell migrations. A new microfluidics technology enables to produce a 3D in vitro model with micrometer ranged channels. In this experiment, The three-channels design PDMS chips act as 3D environment for co-culture of cells. Each side channel in chips is introduced with carcinoma HepG2 cells and normal VSMC cells. The migration of cells through the middle channel filled with collagen matrix is studied. Four growth factors reported to effect on tumor cell migration, VEGF and FBGF secreted by fibroblasts and PDGF and TGFβ1 secreted by smooth muscle cells have been applied for chemotaxis study. Results shows that the model is suitable for cell proliferation, real time observations of cell migrations such as cell migration rate, high reproducibility, visualization of various cell migration patterns in different planes and 3D view. The two potential growth factors TGFβ1 and PDGF shown to have influence the migration of hepG2 cells through collagen.