Abstract B02: Open multi-microwell array for the study of paracrine signaling in tumors
Authors: Ramos Karla P. , Boria Fernando , Domenech Maribella 
Published: March 2017

The development and progression of tumors are modulated by the interaction among multiple cell types present at the tumor adjacent tissue. Few in vitro cell culture platforms allow one to test multi-cellular interactions and those suitable require high numbers of cells limiting studies to cell lines and excluding heterogeneous patient samples, and fail to provide tunable discrete adjacent compartments for the retrieval of independent cell population readouts. Mixing of cells in adjacent compartments and cell sorting after mixed culture represent a costly and time consuming procedure that often results is lost, reduction and/or damage of the recovered sample. To overcome some of these limitations we have developed an open multi-microwell array that enables co-culture of up to 4 cell populations in discrete adjacent wells using either 2- or 3-dimension culture conditions. The circular microwells are made of poly-dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) and placed on top of glass or tissue culture plastic. The open-well format allows cells and culture media to be manually loaded and replaced using a pipette independently of passive pumping method, and without the need of vacuum-assisted filling or syringe pumps. The microwell array is aligned to a 96well plate format for automated fluorescent readouts. The cell culture surface area of each microwell is 5.7mm2 (5ul) and can accommodate 5,000-10,000 cells but the design of each microwell can be scale-down to accommodate smaller cell samples. The adjacent microwells are contained within an outer-ring of 8mm diameter and 750um height. After cell seeding, adjacent compartments can be connected by dispensing a volume of 30-40ul inside the outer ring. A model of tumor-mesenchyme paracrine Hedgehog signaling was developed and characterized to show the feasibility of this array for multi-cell soluble factor signaling studies. Activation of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in the mesenchyme promotes proliferation of tumor cells via secreted factors. As a source of mesenchymal cell sub-types we evaluated TGF-b treated fibroblasts and tumor epithelial cells that undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Myofibroblast phenotype was confirmed based on overexpression of smooth muscle actin, vimentin and fibroblast activating protein, and reduce levels of caveolin-1. Active Hh signaling and pharmacological inhibition with cyclopamine were confirmed by up- and down- regulation of canonical Hh target genes Gli1 and Patch1. Active hedgehog signaling and cell viability was maintained over 5-7days 2-dimensional and collagen type I embedded mesenchymal cells. Breast-derived human epithelial and mesenchymal cells co-cultured in microwells and transwells showed similar increase in tumor cell proliferation rates but with a reduction of 80% or more in the total cells needed compared to transwells. Flow cytometer read-outs of proliferation and tumor cell distribution of CD44/CD24 cell surface receptors were similar among transwells and microwells. Adjacent culture of mouse derived fibroblasts (NIH-3T3) and human tumor cells showed recovery of genomic sample without cell-population mixing using primers for specific for human and mouse GAPDH. Doubling of the number of microwells with mesenchymal cells modulated the observed proliferative effect in tumor cells suggesting that mesenchymal cell ratios modulate tumor response to paracrine Hh signaling. This observation could not be replicated in macro-scale platforms as active Hh signaling in the mesenchyme is achieved via cell growth arrest using a combination of low serum and cell confluence. The open multi-microwell array represents a new user-friendly multi-culture microscale array with optimized capabilities for the study of paracrine signaling among discrete cell populations compared to macroscale culture technology.

Citation Format: Karla P. Ramos, Fernando Boria, Maribella Domenech. Open multi-microwell array for the study of paracrine signaling in tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Engineering and Physical Sciences in Oncology; 2016 Jun 25-28; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B02.