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Figure 10 | BMC Cancer

Figure 10

From: Preferential, enhanced breast cancer cell migration on biomimetic electrospun nanofiber ‘cell highways’

Figure 10

Schemas of breast architecture at various tumor progression stages as well as common scratch or Boyden chamber in vitro assays are displayed with the developed nanofiber based migration platform. Schematic illustrations of (a) normal mammary (a1), pre-malignant mammary tumor (a2), and mammary tumor collagen fiber distribution and organization (a3), topographically mimicked by “random” and “aligned” electrospun fiber (Figure 1(b), (c)). (b) Cell organization on electrospun fiber in a random organization (b1) resembling normal, pre-malignant mammary duct ECM; cell organization on aligned electrospun nanofibers (b2) recapitulates the local microenvironment at the tumor-stroma boundary of radially oriented highly aligned ECM fibrils and enhances the migratory potential of tumor cells. (c) The standard “scratch/wound healing” assay depicting the random movement of cells across the ‘scratch’ driven by population pressure. (d) The Boyden/transwell chamber migration assay in which cells migrate through 8 μm pores and appear on the other side of the membrane.

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