Engineering 3D approaches to model the dynamic microenvironments of cancer bone metastasis.
review · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29507817.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41413-018-0008-9 and PMC identifier 5826951.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Cancer metastasis to bone is a three-dimensional (3D), multistep, dynamic process that requires the sequential involvement of three microenvironments, namely, the primary tumour microenvironment, the circulation microenvironment and the bone microenvironment. Engineered 3D approaches allow for a vivid recapitulation of in vivo cancerous microenvironments in vitro, in which the biological behaviours of cancer cells can be assessed under different metastatic conditions. Therefore, modelling bone metastasis microenvironments with 3D cultures is imperative for advancing cancer research and anti-cancer treatment strategies. In this review, multicellular tumour spheroids and bioreactors, tissue engineering constructs and scaffolds, microfluidic systems and 3D bioprinting technology are discussed to explore the progression of the 3D engineering approaches used to model the three microenvironments of bone metastasis. We aim to provide new insights into cancer biology and advance the translation of new therapies for bone metastasis.