title: Using microfluidics to investigate tumor cell extravasation and T-cell immunotherapies.
abstract: Understanding the mechanism of tumor cell extravasation, cell migration and the role of the immunosystem is crucial in creating targeted and patient-specific cancer therapies. We created an in-vitro microfluidic cell extravasation assay, incorporating a microvascular network and demonstrated its use to study cancer cells extravasation. Separately, we developed an assay for screening T-cell migration and cytotoxicity as a means to evaluate the efficiency of adoptive immunotherapies against cancer. Similar devices using a similar platform can be used to recreate a tumor liver microenvironment, taking in consideration the hypoxic and inflammatory conditions in the liver. These platforms show considerable potential as efficient pre-clinical models for testing the efficiency of cancer drugs and engineered T-cell functionality for personalized medicine.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pavesi
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adriani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bertoletti
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kamm
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D002465:Cell Movement; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment