Recapitulating tumour microenvironment in chitosan–gelatin three-dimensional scaffolds: an improvedin vitrotumour model

Abstract

Owing to the reduced co-relationship between conventional flat Petri dish culture (two-dimensional) and the tumour microenvironment, there has been a shift towards three-dimensional culture systems that show an improved analogy to the same. In this work, an extracellular matrix (ECM)-mimicking three-dimensional scaffold based on chitosan and gelatin was fabricated and explored for its potential as a tumour model for lung cancer. It was demonstrated that the chitosan–gelatin (CG) scaffolds supported the formation of tumoroids that were similar to tumours grownin vivofor factors involved in tumour-cell–ECM interaction, invasion and metastasis, and response to anti-cancer drugs. On the other hand, the two-dimensional Petri dish surfaces did not demonstrate gene-expression profiles similar to tumours grownin vivo. Further, the three-dimensional CG scaffolds supported the formation of tumoroids, using other types of cancer cells such as breast, cervix and bone, indicating a possible wider potential forin vitrotumoroid generation. Overall, the results demonstrated that CG scaffolds can be an improvedin vitrotool to study cancer progression and drug screening for solid tumours.