Study on invadopodia formation for lung carcinoma invasion with a microfluidic 3D culture device

PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e56448. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056448. Epub 2013 Feb 18.

Abstract

Invadopodia or invasive feet, which are actin-rich membrane protrusions with matrix degradation activity formed by invasive cancer cells, are a key determinant in the malignant invasive progression of tumors and represent an important target for cancer therapies. In this work, we presented a microfluidic 3D culture device with continuous supplement of fresh media via a syringe pump. The device mimicked tumor microenvironment in vivo and could be used to assay invadopodia formation and to study the mechanism of human lung cancer invasion. With this device, we investigated the effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor, GM6001 on invadopodia formation by human non-small cell lung cancer cell line A549 in 3D matrix model. This device was composed of three units that were capable of achieving the assays on one control group and two experimental groups' cells, which were simultaneously pretreated with EGF or GM6001 in parallel. Immunofluorescence analysis of invadopodia formation and extracellular matrix degradation was conducted using confocal imaging system. We observed that EGF promoted invadopodia formation by A549 cells in 3D matrix and that GM6001 inhibited the process. These results demonstrated that epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling played a significant role in invadopodia formation and related ECM degradation activity. Meanwhile, it was suggested that MMP inhibitor (GM6001) might be a powerful therapeutic agent targeting invadopodia formation in tumor invasion. This work clearly demonstrated that the microfluidic-based 3D culture device provided an applicable platform for elucidating the mechanism of cancer invasion and could be used in testing other anti-invasion agents.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Apoptosis
  • Carcinoma / pathology*
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Survival
  • Dipeptides / pharmacology
  • Epidermal Growth Factor / pharmacology
  • Extracellular Matrix / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques* / instrumentation
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques* / methods
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Dipeptides
  • N-(2(R)-2-(hydroxamidocarbonylmethyl)-4-methylpentanoyl)-L-tryptophan methylamide
  • Epidermal Growth Factor

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National High-tech R&D Program (973 Program, No. 2012CB822103) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91129733 and 81071228). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.