A team of researchers at Brown University have created a three-dimensional brain tumour complete with surrounding blood vessels.
The living tumour was created to analyse the effectiveness of therapeutics to combat brain tumours, or gliomas.
A study of the tumour revealed that iron-oxide nanoparticles ferrying the chemical tumstatin penetrated the blood vessels that sustain the tumour with oxygen and nutrients.
Iron-oxide nanoparticles are important because they are readily taken up by endothelial cells and can be tracked by magnetic resonance imaging.
Previous experiments have shown the effectiveness of tumstatin at blocking endothelial cell growth in tumours. This latest experiment confirms in a living, three-dimensional environment, the the iron-oxide nanoparticles' ability to reach blood vessels surrounding a glioma as well as tumstatin’s ability to penetrate endothelial cells.
“The 3-D glioma model that we have developed offers a facile process to test diffusion and penetration into a glioma that is covered by a blood vessel-like coating of endothelial cells,” said Don Ho, a graduate student in the lab of chemistry professor Shouheng Sun and the lead author of the paper in the journal Theranostics.
“This assay would save time and money, while reducing tests in living organisms, to examine an agent’s 3-D characteristics such as the ability for targeting and diffusion.”
The tissue model was created by combining an agarose hydrogel mold with cells from rats and cows.
According to a press release from Browns: "The advantage of a 3-D model rather than Petri-dish-type analyses is that the endothelial cells attach to the tumor, rather than being separated from the substrate. This means the researchers can study their formation and growth, as well as the action of anti-therapeutic agents, just as they would in a living organism."