Assessing the metastatic potential of circulating tumor cells using an organ-on-chip model.

Metastatic lung cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, with its intricate metastatic cascade posing significant challenges to researchers and clinicians. Despite substantial progress in understanding this cascade, many aspects remain elusive. Microfluidic-based vasculature-on-chip models have emerged as powerful tools in cancer research, enabling the simulation of specific stages of tumor progression. In this study, we investigate the extravasation behaviors of A549 lung cancer cell subpopulations, revealing distinct differences based on their phenotypes. Our results show that holoclones, which exhibit an epithelial phenotype, do not undergo extravasation. In contrast, paraclones, characterized by a mesenchymal phenotype, demonstrate a notable capacity for extravasation. Furthermore, we observed that paraclones migrate significantly faster than holoclones within the microfluidic model. Importantly, we found that the depletion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) effectively inhibits the extravasation of paraclones. These findings highlight the utility of microfluidic-based models in replicating key aspects of the metastatic cascade. The insights gained from this study underscore the potential of these models to advance precision medicine by facilitating the assessment of patient-specific cancer cell dynamics and drug responses. This approach could lead to improved strategies for predicting metastatic risk and tailoring personalized cancer therapies, potentially involving the sampling of cancer cells from patients during tumor resection or biopsies.

CD90+CD146+ identifies a pulmonary mesenchymal cell subtype with both immune modulatory and perivascular-like function in postnatal human lung.

Our understanding of mesenchymal cell subsets and their function in human lung affected by aging and in certain disease settings remains poorly described. We use a combination of flow cytometry, prospective cell-sorting strategies, confocal imaging, and modeling of microvessel formation using advanced microfluidic chip technology to characterize mesenchymal cell subtypes in human postnatal and adult lung. Tissue was obtained from patients undergoing elective surgery for congenital pulmonary airway malformations (CPAM) and other airway abnormalities including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In microscopically normal postnatal human lung, there was a fivefold higher mesenchymal compared with epithelial (EpCAM+) fraction, which diminished with age. The mesenchymal fraction composed of CD90+ and CD90+CD73+ cells was enriched in CXCL12 and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α (PDGFRα) and located in close proximity to EpCAM+ cells in the alveolar region. Surprisingly, alveolar organoids generated from EpCAM+ cells supported by CD90+ subset were immature and displayed dysplastic features. In congenital lung lesions, cystic air spaces and dysplastic alveolar regions were marked with an underlying thick interstitium composed of CD90+ and CD90+PDGFRα+ cells. In postnatal lung, a subset of CD90+ cells coexpresses the pericyte marker CD146 and supports self-assembly of perfusable microvessels. CD90+CD146+ cells from COPD patients fail to support microvessel formation due to fibrinolysis. Targeting the plasmin-plasminogen system during microvessel self-assembly prevented fibrin gel degradation, but microvessels were narrower and excessive contraction blocked perfusion. These data provide important new information regarding the immunophenotypic identity of key mesenchymal lineages and their change in a diverse setting of congenital lung lesions and COPD.

Medium throughput breathing human primary cell alveolus-on-chip model.

Organs-on-chips have the potential to improve drug development efficiency and decrease the need for animal testing. For the successful integration of these devices in research and industry, they must reproduce in vivo contexts as closely as possible and be easy to use. Here, we describe a 'breathing' lung-on-chip array equipped with a passive medium exchange mechanism that provide an in vivo-like environment to primary human lung alveolar cells (hAEpCs) and primary lung endothelial cells. This configuration allows the preservation of the phenotype and the function of hAEpCs for several days, the conservation of the epithelial barrier functionality, while enabling simple sampling of the supernatant from the basal chamber. In addition, the chip design increases experimental throughput and enables trans-epithelial electrical resistance measurements using standard equipment. Biological validation revealed that human primary alveolar type I (ATI) and type II-like (ATII) epithelial cells could be successfully cultured on the chip over multiple days. Moreover, the effect of the physiological cyclic strain showed that the epithelial barrier permeability was significantly affected. Long-term co-culture of primary human lung epithelial and endothelial cells demonstrated the potential of the lung-on-chip array for reproducible cell culture under physiological conditions. Thus, this breathing lung-on-chip array, in combination with patients' primary ATI, ATII, and lung endothelial cells, has the potential to become a valuable tool for lung research, drug discovery and precision medicine.

Human microvasculature-on-a chip: anti-neovasculogenic effect of nintedanib in vitro.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is characterized by a progressive scarring and stiffening of the peripheral lung tissue that decreases lung function. Over the course of the disease, the lung microvasculature undergoes extensive remodeling. There is increased angiogenesis around fibrotic foci and an absence of microvessels within the foci. To elucidate how the anti-fibrotic drug nintedanib acts on vascular remodeling, we used an in vitro model of perfusable microvessels made with primary endothelial cells and primary lung fibroblasts in a microfluidic chip. The microvasculature model allowed us to study the impact of nintedanib on permeability, vascularized area, and cell-cell interactions. The anti-vasculogenic impact of nintedanib was visible at the minimal concentrations of 10 nM, showing a significant increase in vessel permeability. Furthermore, nintedanib decreased microvessel density, diameter, and influenced fibroblast organization around endothelial microvessels. These results show that nintedanib acts on the endothelial network formation and endothelial-perivascular interactions. Advanced in vitro microvasculature models may thus serve to pinpoint the mechanistic effect of anti-fibrotic drugs on the microvascular remodeling in 3D and refine findings from animal studies.

Increased PD-L1 expression and IL-6 secretion characterize human lung tumor-derived perivascular-like cells that promote vascular leakage in a perfusable microvasculature model.

Pericytes represent important support cells surrounding microvessels found in solid organs. Emerging evidence points to their involvement in tumor progression and metastasis. Although reported to be present in the human lung, their specific presence and functional orientation within the tumor microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not yet been adequately studied. Using a multiparameter approach, we prospectively identified, sorted and expanded mesenchymal cells from human primary NSCLC samples based on co-expression of CD73 and CD90 while lacking hematopoietic and endothelial lineage markers (CD45, CD31, CD14 and Gly-A) and the epithelial marker EpCAM. Compared to their normal counterpart, tumor-derived Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+ cells showed enhanced expression of the immunosuppressive ligand PD-L1, a higher constitutive secretion of IL-6 and increased basal αSMA levels. In an in vitro model of 3D microvessels, both tumor-derived and matched normal Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+ cells supported the assembly of perfusable vessels. However, tumor-derived Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+ cells led to the formation of vessels with significantly increased permeability. Together, our data show that perivascular-like cells present in NSCLC retain functional abnormalities in vitro. Perivascular-like cells as an eventual target in NSCLC warrants further investigation.

Towards personalized medicine: chemosensitivity assays of patient lung cancer cell spheroids in a perfused microfluidic platform.

Cancer is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide and the variability in disease patterns calls for patient-specific treatment. Therefore, personalized treatment is expected to become a daily routine in prospective clinical tests. In addition to genetic mutation analysis, predictive chemosensitive assays using patient's cells will be carried out as a decision making tool. However, prior to their widespread application in clinics, several challenges linked to the establishment of such assays need to be addressed. To best predict the drug response in a patient, the cellular environment needs to resemble that of the tumor. Furthermore, the formation of homogeneous replicates from a scarce amount of patient's cells is essential to compare the responses under various conditions (compound and concentration). Here, we present a microfluidic device for homogeneous spheroid formation in eight replicates in a perfused microenvironment. Spheroid replicates from either a cell line or primary cells from adenocarcinoma patients were successfully created. To further mimic the tumor microenvironment, spheroid co-culture of primary lung cancer epithelial cells and primary pericytes were tested. A higher chemoresistance in primary co-culture spheroids compared to primary monoculture spheroids was found when both were constantly perfused with cisplatin. This result is thought to be due to the barrier created by the pericytes around the tumor spheroids. Thus, this device can be used for additional chemosensitivity assays (e.g. sequential treatment) of patient material to further approach the personalized oncology field.

Primary Human Lung Pericytes Support and Stabilize In Vitro Perfusable Microvessels.

The formation of blood vessels is a complex tissue-specific process that plays a pivotal role during developmental processes, in wound healing, cancer progression, fibrosis, and other pathologies. To study vasculogenesis and vascular remodeling in the context of the lung, we developed an in vitro microvascular model that closely mimics the human lung microvasculature in terms of three-dimensional architecture, accessibility, functionality, and cell types. Human pericytes from the distal airway were isolated and characterized using flow cytometry. To assess their role in the generation of normal microvessels, lung pericytes were mixed in fibrin gel and seeded into well-defined microcompartments together with primary endothelial cells (human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells). Patent microvessels covering an area of 3.1 mm(2) formed within 3-5 days and were stable for up to 14 days. Soluble signals from the lung pericytes were necessary to establish perfusability, and pericytes migrated toward endothelial microvessels. Cell-cell communication in the form of adherens and tight junctions, as well as secretion of basement membrane were confirmed using transmission electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry on chip. Direct coculture of pericytes with endothelial cells decreased the microvascular permeability by one order of magnitude from 17.8×10(-6) to 2.0×10(-6) cm/s and led to vessels with significantly smaller and less variable diameter. Upon phenylephrine administration, vasoconstriction was observed in microvessels lined with pericytes, but not in endothelial microvessels only. Perfusable microvessels were also generated with human lung microvascular endothelial cells and lung pericytes. Human lung pericytes were thus shown to have a prominent influence on microvascular morphology, permeability, vasoconstriction, and long-term stability in an in vitro microvascular system. This biomimetic platform opens new possibilities to test functions and interactions of patient-derived cells in a physiologically relevant microvascular setting.

A lung-on-a-chip array with an integrated bio-inspired respiration mechanism.

We report a lung-on-a-chip array that mimics the pulmonary parenchymal environment, including the thin alveolar barrier and the three-dimensional cyclic strain induced by breathing movements. The micro-diaphragm used to stretch the alveolar barrier is inspired by the in vivo diaphragm, the main muscle responsible for inspiration. The design of this device aims not only at best reproducing the in vivo conditions found in the lung parenchyma but also at making the device robust and its handling easy. An innovative concept, based on the reversible bonding of the device, is presented that enables accurate control of the concentration of cells cultured on the membrane by easily accessing both sides of the membranes. The functionality of the alveolar barrier could be restored by co-culturing epithelial and endothelial cells that form tight monolayers on each side of a thin, porous and stretchable membrane. We showed that cyclic stretch significantly affects the permeability properties of epithelial cell layers. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that the strain influences the metabolic activity and the cytokine secretion of primary human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells obtained from patients. These results demonstrate the potential of this device and confirm the importance of the mechanical strain induced by breathing in pulmonary research.

A microfluidic platform for chemoresistive testing of multicellular pleural cancer spheroids.

This study reports on a microfluidic platform on which single multicellular spheroids from malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), an aggressive tumor with poor prognosis, can be loaded, trapped and tested for chemotherapeutic drug response. A new method to detect the spheroid viability cultured on the microfluidic chip as a function of the drug concentration is presented. This approach is based on the evaluation of the caspase activity in the supernatant sampled from the chip and tested using a microplate reader. This simple and time-saving method does only require a minimum amount of manipulations and was established for very low numbers of cells. This feature is particularly important in view of personalised medicine applications for which the number of cells obtained from the patients is low. MPM spheroids were continuously perfused for 48 hours with cisplatin, one of the standard chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat MPM. The 50% growth inhibitory concentration of cisplatin in perfused MPM spheroids was found to be twice as high as in spheroids cultured under static conditions. This chemoresistance increase might be due to the continuous support of nutrients and oxygen to the perfused spheroids.

Potentiometric platform for the quantification of cellular potassium efflux.

Renewed interest in the measurement of cellular K(+) effluxes has been prompted by the observation that potassium plays an active and important role in numerous key cellular events, in particular cell necrosis and apoptosis. Although necrosis and apoptosis follow different pathways, both induce intracellular potassium effluxes. Here, we report the use of potassium-selective microelectrodes located in a microfluidic platform for cell culture to monitor and quantify such effluxes in real time. Using this platform, we observed and measured the early signs of cell lysis induced by a modification of the extracellular osmolarity. Furthermore, we were able to quantify the number of dying cells by evaluating the extracellular potassium concentration. A comparison between the potentiometric measurement with a fluorescent live-dead assay performed under similar conditions revealed the delay between potassium effluxes and cell necrosis. These results suggest that such platforms may be exploited for applications, such as cytotoxicological screening assays or tumor cell proliferation assays, by using extracellular K(+) as cell death marker.