目前通常采用的二维细胞培养技术在研究肿瘤细胞间的相互作用中缺乏三维的空间结构；而在动物体内构建的动物肿瘤组织模型，大多也是在形态和表型上进行模拟，无法很好地模拟肿瘤血管形成、浸润和骨转移的病理机制；以三维支架材料和生物反应器技术为基础的组织工程技术为研究肿瘤的发生发展提供了新的技术平台。本课题将利用温敏性水凝胶和纳米纤维微球作为支架材料，在体外构建含有不同细胞成分的三维人源性乳腺癌实体瘤，利用多层纳米膜层层重叠技术构建三维人源性骨组织，并将构建的人源性乳腺癌组织与人工骨组织维持在同一个培养体系，建立乳腺癌的体外三维组织培养平台，并在此基础上，研究不同的构建条件下体外肿瘤组织发生及骨转移的分子机制；并利用该体外构建的肿瘤组织模型比较研究肿瘤细胞、骨髓间充质干细胞以及上皮细胞在肿瘤发生与骨转移中的交互应答。该三维模型还将初步用于检测碳纳米管-siRNA载体的体外抗肿瘤效果。

Current in vitro models of tumorigenesis are restricted by the use of static, 2D cell culture monolayers that lack the structural architecture necessary for proper cell-cell interaction and an in vivo phenotype and 3D cell culture systems that restore the cellular morphology and phenotypes observed in vivo but are too simplistic for studying the pathological mechanisms of angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis. Tissue engineering, specifically the unique cell culturing techniques provided by the use of 3D scaffolds and bioreactor technology, offers a new approach for studying cancer development in vitro. A primary focus in the project is to develop three-dimensional network platforms of human breast cancer using thermosensitive hydrogel and nano fiber microspheres. Multilayer nano-membranes will be used to construct 3D artificial human bone. 3D breast cancer tissue and 3D artificial human bone were co-cultured in a same cell culture system. The novel 3D in vitro tumor osseous metastasis model will be used to study cancer development and the mechanism of cancer metastasis. The in vitro 3D breast cancer model will be also used to study the cross-talks among tumor cells, BSMC and epithelia cells during tumor growth and metastasis. The 3D cancer model will be taken as in vitro drug screening system to test the anti-cancer function of carbon nanotube-siRNA carrier.