A Coculture Based, 3D Bioprinted Ovarian Tumor Model Combining Cancer Cells and Cancer Associated Fibroblasts.

Ovarian cancer remains a major public health issue due to its poor prognosis. To develop more effective therapies, it is crucial to set-up reliable models that closely mimic the complexity of the ovarian tumor's microenvironment. 3D bioprinting is currently a promising approach to build heterogenous and reproducible cancer models with controlled shape and architecture. However, this technology is still poorly investigated to model ovarian tumors. In this study, a 3D bioprinted ovarian tumor model combining cancer cells (SKOV-3) and cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are described. The resulting tumor models show their ability to maintain cell viability and proliferation. Cells are observed to self-assemble in heterotypic aggregates. Moreover, CAFs are observed to be recruited and to circle cancer cells reproducing an in vivo process taking place in the tumor microenvironment. Interestingly, this approach also shows its ability to rapidly generate a high number of reproducible tumor models that can be subjected to usual characterizations (cell viability and metabolic activity; histology and immunological studies; and real-time imaging). Therefore, these ovarian tumor models can be an interesting tool for high throughput drug screening applications.

Human SLC4A11 does not complement BOR1 or support borate transport in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Borate is an essential micronutrient in plants regulated by borate transporters, which also protect both yeast and plants from toxically high levels of borate and share homology with the human SLC4 transporters. SLC4A11 is linked to congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy and was initially reported to transport borate before subsequent studies rebutted this conclusion. To better understand the transport activities of purported borate transporters, we tested the ability of SLC4A11 and eleven borate transporters from A. thaliana and O. sativa to complement a BOR1 deletion in S. cerevisiae . We show that AtBOR4 , AtBOR5 , AtBOR7 , OsBOR2 , and OsBOR3 can each complement ScBOR1 , while the rest of the transporters tested do not rescue growth. Additionally, quantification of intracellular borate content demonstrates that SLC4A11 does not export borate in yeast, supporting studies that its transported substrate is not borate.