Early investigations promising for detecting metastatic breast cancer cells

Research by engineers and cancer biologists at Virginia Tech indicate that using specific silicon microdevices might provide a new way to screen breast cancer cells' ability to metastasize.

An image of their work provided to Biomaterials was selected as one of the 12 best biomaterials-related images published in the journal's 2010 catalogue.

The Virginia Tech researchers are: Masoud Agah, director of Virginia Tech's Microelectromechanical Systems Laboratory (MEMS) Laboratory in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Jeannine Strobl, a research professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Mehdi Nikkhah of mechanical engineering; and Raffaella DeVita of engineering science and mechanics and the director of the soft biological systems laboratory. Nikkhah was Virginia Tech's Outstanding Doctoral Student in the College of Engineering for 2009.

Their work appeared in two journal articles they authored in 2010 issues of Biomaterials, titled "Actions of the anti-cancer drug suberoylanilide hydroaxamic acid (SAHA) on human breast cancer cytoarchitecture in silicon microstructures," and "The cytoskeletal organization of breast carcinoma and fibroblast cells inside three dimensional isotropic microstructures."

Cell cytoskeleton refers to the cell's shape and its mechanical properties, Agah explained. "Any change in the cytoskeletal structure can affect the interaction of cells with their surrounding microenvironments. Biological events in normal cells such as embryonic development, tissue growth and repair, and immune responses, as well as cancer cell motility and invasiveness are dependent upon cytoskeletal reorganization," the electrical engineer added.

Understanding how the cell interacts with the contents of its surrounding environment inside the human body, including the introduction of a drug, is a fundamental biological question. The answers have implications in cancer diagnosis and therapy, as well as tissue engineering, Agah said.

In previous experimentation by others in the field, researchers have exposed cells to mechanical, chemical and three-dimensional topographical stimuli. They recorded the cells' various responses in terms of migration, growth, and ability to adhere. Also, in the past, researchers have created substrates of precise micro- and nano-topographical and chemical patterns to mimic in vivo microenvironments for biological and medical applications.

What distinguishes the work of Agah, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award recipient, and his colleagues, is they developed a specific three-dimensional silicon microstructure for their work. Due to its curved isotropic surfaces, they were able to characterize and compare the growth and adhesion behavior of normal fibroblast and metastatic human breast cancer cells, they reported in Biomaterials.