Title Information
Title
Collective and Individual Invasion of Multicellular Spheroids in 3D Matrix
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations
Name: Personal
Name Part
Marzoratti, Alejandro M
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Wong, Ian
Role
Role Term: Text
Advisor
Name: Personal
Name Part
Srivastava, Vikas
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Lawler, Sean
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Biology and Medicine: Biomedical Engineering
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2023
Physical Description
Extent
ix, 76 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note: thesis
Thesis (Sc. M.)--Brown University, 2023
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is associated with solid tumor dissemination and metastasis. Directed migration of tumor cells into the surrounding stroma occurs through both collective and individual phenotypes, mediated by varying cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesions. Such invasive phenotypes may utilize spatially and temporally coordinated tractions to deform and remodel extracellular matrix. However, the mechanistic role of EMT in collective and individual invasion remains poorly understood. We utilized the hanging drop method to aggregate mammary epithelial (MCF-10A) cells, with an inducible gene expression construct that induces EMT master regulator Snail-1 in response to stimulation of the estrogen receptor with tamoxifen. Spheroids were transferred into 3D matrix (e.g., bovine collagen I) embedded with tracer particles to create a spheroid invasion model. Over several days, we observed and imaged spheroid invasion profiles using spinning disk confocal microscopy with environmental control, and 3D single cell and particle tracking was performed using custom MATLAB code. Our findings revealed that induction of EMT in MCF-10A spheroids via Snail-1 upregulation decreased cell-cell adhesions, resulting in the loss of leader-follower cell behavior and collective invasion. EMT induction was also associated with a loss of intra-spheroid coordinated cell motion as well as spheroid generated matrix deformations. The use of confocal imaging and 3D cell culture techniques allowed for high-resolution characterization of collective and individual cell dynamics. These findings have intriguing implications for cancer research and therapy development, including EMT as a potential therapeutic target.
Subject
Topic
cancer cell invasion
Subject
Topic
epithelial mesenchymal transition
Language
Language Term (ISO639-2B)
English
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20230602