Microfluidics-based devices: New tools for studying cancer and cancer stem cell migration
Microfluidics-based devices: New tools for studying cancer and cancer stem cell migration
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DOI：
10.1063/1.3555195
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发表时间：
2011-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Williams, Justin C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Huang, Yu;Agrawal, Basheal;Williams, Justin C.
细胞运动对细胞外基质和介质的刺激高度敏感。细胞质膜上的受体可以激活信号转导通路，通过重组与运动相关的细胞器来改变细胞的机械行为。癌细胞对不同环境的反应比非癌细胞更强烈地改变了它们的迁移机制。因此，通过抑制相关信号转导通路来固定癌细胞的治疗方法依赖于对细胞迁移机制的更好理解。近年来，工程师们一直在与生物学家合作，将微流控技术应用于细胞迁移研究。与盘子上的传统培养不同，微流控技术处理的是在几何上被限制在亚毫米尺度的液体的操作。这样的小尺度提供了许多优点，包括成本效益、低试剂消耗、高灵敏度、高时空分辨率和层流。因此，微流体学有可能成为研究细胞迁移的新平台。本文就微流控技术在肿瘤及其他细胞迁移研究中的应用进展作一综述。这些研究加深了我们对细胞迁移和癌症侵袭的理解，以及它们对微环境细微变化的反应。我们希望这篇综述将作为生物学家和工程师进一步开发微流控工具箱在癌症研究中应用的跨学科指导。(C)2011年美国物理研究所。[DOI：10.1063/1.3555195]
Cell movement is highly sensitive to stimuli from the extracellular matrix and media. Receptors on the plasma membrane in cells can activate signal transduction pathways that change the mechanical behavior of a cell by reorganizing motion-related organelles. Cancer cells change their migration mechanisms in response to different environments more robustly than noncancer cells. Therefore, therapeutic approaches to immobilize cancer cells via inhibition of the related signal transduction pathways rely on a better understanding of cell migration mechanisms. In recent years, engineers have been working with biologists to apply microfluidics technology to study cell migration. As opposed to conventional cultures on dishes, microfluidics deals with the manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a submillimeter scale. Such small scales offer a number of advantages including cost effectiveness, low consumption of reagents, high sensitivity, high spatiotemporal resolution, and laminar flow. Therefore, microfluidics has a potential as a new platform to study cell migration. In this review, we summarized recent progress on the application of microfluidics in cancer and other cell migration researches. These studies have enhanced our understanding of cell migration and cancer invasion as well as their responses to subtle variations in their microenvironment. We hope that this review will serve as an interdisciplinary guidance for both biologists and engineers as they further develop the microfluidic toolbox toward applications in cancer research. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3555195]