Introduction: Metabolic strategies in different microenvironments can affect cancer metabolic adaptation, ultimately influencing the therapeutic response. Understanding the metabolic alterations of cancer cells in different microenvironments is critical for therapeutic success.
Methods: In this study, we cultured non-small cell lung cancer cells in three different microenvironments (two-dimensional (2D) plates, soft elastic three-dimensional (3D) porous 2 wt% scaffolds, and stiff elastic 3D porous 4 wt% scaffolds) to investigate the effects of different matrix elasticity as well as 2D and 3D culture settings on the metabolic adaptation of cancer cells.
Results: The results revealed that PGC-1α expression is sensitive to the elasticity of the 3D scaffold. PGC-1α expression was markedly increased in cancer cells cultured in stiff elastic 3D porous 4 wt% scaffolds compared with cells cultured in soft elastic 3D porous 2 wt% scaffolds or 2D plates, enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative stress resistance of non-small cell lung cancer through increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification capacity. However, phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK-1) expression, a key rate-limiting enzyme in glycolysis, did not change significantly in the three microenvironments, indicating that microenvironments may not affect the early stage of glycolysis. Conversely, monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) expression in 3D culture was significantly reduced compared to 2D culture but without significant difference between soft and stiff scaffolds, indicating that MCT1 expression is more sensitive to the shape of the different cultures of 2D and 3D microenvironment surrounding cells but is unaffected by the scaffold elasticity.
Conclusions: Together, these results demonstrate that differences in the microenvironment of cancer cells profoundly impact their metabolic response.
Keywords: Metabolic alternation; Microenvironments; Mitochondrial biogenesis; Non-small cell lung cancer; ROS detoxification capacities; Three-dimensional scaffolds.
© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Biomedical Engineering Society 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.