Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds for the propagation and analysis of breast cancer stem cells <i>in vitro</i>

Abstract

Despite advances in cancer treatment, breast cancer remains the second foremost cause of cancer mortality among women, with a high rate of relapse after initial treatment success. A subpopulation of highly malignant cancer cells, known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), is suspected to be linked to metastasis and relapse. Targeting of CSCs may therefore provide a means of addressing cancer-related mortality. However, due to their low population in vivo and a lack of proper culture platform for their propagation, much of the CSC biology remains unknown. Since maintenance of CSCs is heavily influenced by the tumor microenvironment, this study developed a 3D culture platform that mimics the metastatic tumor extracellular matrix (ECM) to effectively increase CSC population in vitro and allow CSC analysis. Through electrospinning, nanofibers that were aligned, porous, and collagen-coated were fabricated from polycaprolactone to recreate the metastatic tumor ECM assemblage. Breast cancer cells seeded onto the nanofiber scaffolds exhibited gross morphology and cytoskeletal phenotype similar to invasive cancer cells. Moreover, the population of breast cancer stem cells increased in nanofiber scaffolds. Analysis of breast cancer cells grown on the nanofiber scaffolds demonstrated an upregulation of mesenchymal markers and an increase in cell invasiveness suggesting the cells have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These results indicate that the fabricated nanofiber scaffolds effectively mimicked the tumor microenvironment that maintains the cancer stem cell population, offering a platform to enrich and analyze CSCs in vitro.