Glioblastoma Organoid
Israeli biologists have printed out a cancerous tumor on a 3D printer
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
Glioblastoma is an incredibly aggressive and dangerous brain tumor. Its treatment is extremely difficult, requires the use of radiation and chemotherapy, with the harmful effects of which the weakened patient's body does not always cope. No wonder doctors are trying to fight glioblastoma even with the help of dangerous viruses, including Ebola and poliovirus.
Scientists are actively researching this type of cancer and looking for new ways to fight it. However, for this purpose it is necessary to use tissue samples taken from patients and grow them in vitro, "in vitro". In such conditions, glioblastoma often behaves completely differently than in a "natural" environment. For example, in the brain, a tumor produces the protein P-selectin, which stimulates neighboring microglial cells not to counteract it, but, on the contrary, to maintain and supply nutrients like healthy neurons.
"We find the protein in tumors surgically removed, but not in glioblastoma, which is grown on flat Petri dishes in the laboratory," notes Ronit Satchi–Fainaro from Tel Aviv University. – The reason is that cancer, like ordinary tissues, behaves completely differently on a plastic surface than in a human body. About 90 percent of all experimental drugs are discarded because successful results obtained in the laboratory are not reproduced on live patients."
That is why Sachi-Fainaro and her colleagues decided to create a more adequate laboratory model of glioblastoma. To do this, they turned to 3D printing with living cells, and as "ink" they used astrocytes, microglia and the tumor itself, samples of which were taken from a volunteer patient. In addition, the cells lining the vessels were used – to create a blood network – and intercellular matrix proteins obtained from the same patient.
A drawing from the press release of the First 3D-bioprinting of entire active tumor.
A report on this work is presented in an article published in the journal Science Advances (Neufeld et al., Microengineered perfusable 3D-bioprinted glioblastoma model for in vivo mimicry of tumor microenvironment).
The 3D bioprinter made it possible to recreate the glioblastoma in the natural environment of matrix proteins and capillaries. Scientists tested the model using P-selectin, adding its inhibitor to the medium. This led to a slowdown in tumor growth "in vitro", whereas no such effect was observed on conventional glioblastoma models simply grown in a Petri dish. Sequencing of the genome of the printed tumor also showed that its DNA is closer to "natural" than that of conventional models, which change rapidly once they are on a flat surface.
The authors note that their technology can become not only a more accurate tool for glioblastoma research, but also a means of individual therapy. "It is possible to take tissue samples from a patient together with an intercellular matrix, and then use a 3D bioprinter to print hundreds of tiny tumors to check which drugs and in which combinations will be most effective in this particular case," explains Ronit Sachi-Fainaro.
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