DESCRIPTION

Microvalve Bioprinting technologies are powerful new bioengineering tools that can spatially reproduce multiple microenvironmental cues in a highly controlled, tunable, and precise manner.

In this study, microvalve bioprinting technology was successfully used to print endothelial and tumor cells at higher concentrations, while preservating their viability.

We propose that the resulting multicellular models, bioprinted in a controlled extracellular matrix microenvironment, are well-suited to study endothelial and cancer cell crosstalk within a cancer niche.

In fact, microvalve bioprinting was applied to the bioengineering of a simplified glioblastoma.

Some model where biological processes involved in tumor expansion, such as tumor cell invasion patterns, cell proliferation, and senescence could be easily visualized and quantified.

In this model, glioblastoma cells and primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exhibited high viability after printing.

U251 cells formed physiologically relevant clusters and invasion margins, while HUVECs generated vascular-like networks when primary fibroblasts were added to the model.

An oxidative stress mimicking the one encountered within a tumor microenvironment during radiotherapy  was shown the endothelial cells proliferation.

Results also suggested that stressed glioblastoma cells may alter normal endothelial cell proliferation but not impact their senescence.

This data demonstrates the potential of microvalve bioprinting to fabricate in vitro models that can help decipher endothelial and tumor cell crosstalk, within controlled and modulable microenvironments.

It also can be used to address critical questions in the context of cancer recurrence.

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