Microfluidic organ-on-chip system for monitoring 3D breast cancer stem cell cultures

Abstract:
The replication of 3D, heterogeneous breast cancer models in vitro represents a substantial aspect in the development of personalized chemotherapy. Especially, the use of the patients’ own breast cancer stem cells (BCSC) allows the investigation of metastatic dissemination and therapy resistance, as they are considered to be the key drivers of the aggressiveness of a tumor. In this work, we present a microfluidic organ-on-chip system with embedded electrochemical microsensors for long-term monitoring of the metabolic parameters oxygen and lactate during the formation of BCSC spheroids from single cells and the exposure to drugs.