a-microphysiological-system-to-study-leukocyte-endothelial-cell

A Microphysiological System to Study Leukocyte-Endothelial Cell Interaction during Inflammation

Leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions play an important role in inflammatory diseases such as sepsis. During inflammation, excessive migration of ...

University of Toledo

All drugs recently developed in rodent models to treat inflammatory disease have failed in clinical trials. We therefore used our novel biomimetic microfluidic assay (bMFA) to determine whether the response of murine cells to inflammatory activation or anti-inflammatory treatment is predictive of the response in human cells. Under physiologically relevant flow conditions, permeability and transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) of human or mouse lung microvascular endothelial cells (HLMVEC or MLMVEC), and neutrophil-endothelial cell interaction was measured. The differential impact of a protein kinase C-delta TAT peptide inhibitor (PKCδ-i) was also quantified. Permeability of HLMVEC and MLMVEC was similar under control conditions but tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and PKCδ-i had a significantly higher impact on permeability of HLMVEC. TEER across HLMVEC was significantly higher than MLMVEC, but PKCδ-i returned TEER to background levels only in human cells. The kinetics of N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP)-mediated neutrophil migration was significantly different between the two species and PKCδ-i was significantly more effective in attenuating human neutrophil migration. However, human and mouse neutrophil adhesion patterns to microvascular endothelium were not significantly different. Surprisingly, while intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) was significantly upregulated on activated HLMVEC, it was not significantly upregulated on activated MLMVEC. Responses to activation and anti-inflammatory treatment in mice may not always be predictive of their response in humans.

Neutrophil-endothelial interactions of murine cells is not a good predictor of their interactions in human cells.

Of around half a million women dying of breast cancer each year, more than 90% die due to metastasis. Models necessary to understand the metastatic process, particularly breast cancer cell extravasation and colonization, are currently limited and urgently needed to develop therapeutic interventions necessary to prevent breast cancer metastasis. Microfluidic approaches aim to reconstitute functional units of organs that cannot be modeled easily in traditional cell culture or animal studies by reproducing vascular networks and parenchyma on a chip in a three-dimensional, physiologically relevant  system. In recent years, microfluidics models utilizing innovative biomaterials and micro-engineering technologies have shown great potential in our effort of mechanistic understanding of the breast cancer metastasis cascade by providing 3D constructs that can mimic  cellular microenvironment and the ability to visualize and monitor cellular interactions in real-time. In this review, we will provide readers with a detailed discussion on the application of the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art microfluidics-based breast cancer models, with a special focus on their application in the engineering approaches to recapitulate the metastasis process, including invasion, intravasation, extravasation, breast cancer metastasis organotropism, and metastasis niche formation.

Yuan Tang

Department of Bioengineering

University of Toledo

A Microphysiological System to Study Leukocyte-Endothelial Cell Interaction during Inflammation

Yuan Tang

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Bioengineering

University of Toledo

A Microphysiological System to Study Leukocyte-Endothelial Cell Interaction during Inflammation

Department of Bioengineering