Development of three-dimensional collagen scaffolds with controlled architecture for cell migration studies using breast cancer cell lines

Abstract

Cancer is characterized by cell heterogeneity and the development of 3D $\textit{in vitro }$ assays that can distinguish more invasive or migratory phenotypes could enhance diagnosis or drug discovery. 3D collagen scaffolds have been used to develop analogues of complex tissues $\textit{in vitro }$ and are suited to routine biochemical and immunological assays. We sought to increase 3D model tractability and modulate the migration rate of seeded cells using an ice-templating technique to create either directional/anisotropic or non-directional/isotropic porous architectures within cross-linked collagen scaffolds. Anisotropic scaffolds supported the enhanced migration of an invasive breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 with an altered spatial distribution of proliferative cells in contrast to invasive MDA-MB-468 and non-invasive MCF-7 cells lines. In addition, MDA-MB-468 showed increased migration upon epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in anisotropic scaffolds. The provision of controlled architecture in this system may act both to increase assay robustness and as a tuneable parameter to capture detection of a migrated population within a set time, with consequences for primary tumour migration analysis. The separation of invasive clones from a cancer biomass with in vitro platforms could enhance drug development and diagnosis testing by contributing assay metrics including migration rate, as well as modelling cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction in a system compatible with routine histopathological testing.