清华大学和德雷塞尔大学联合研发 3D打印的肿瘤模型可以帮助医生开发更有效的癌症治疗方法
The 3D-printed TUMOURS that could help doctors develop more effective cancer treatments
中国清华大学和美国德雷塞尔大学的研究人员在宫颈癌细胞中构建了一种蛋白质支架。
他们用3D打印机制作了一个肿瘤的3D模型，为肿瘤的环境提供了逼真的3D表现。
人们希望它能帮助发现新药，并为肿瘤如何在体内发展、生长和扩散提供新的线索。
刚刚有消息称，科学家们正致力于用病人自己的细胞打印心脏，现在用3D打印机制作了一个癌症肿瘤的3D模型。
该模型由涂覆在子宫颈癌细胞中的纤维蛋白支架组成，提供了一个真实的肿瘤环境的三维表示。
人们希望它能帮助发现新药，并为肿瘤如何在体内发展、生长和扩散提供新的线索。
中国和美国的一组研究人员创建了一个网格结构模型，这个网格结构的尺寸为1cm平方，由明胶、海藻酸盐和纤维蛋白组成，用来重建构成肿瘤细胞外基质的纤维蛋白。
网格结构被海拉细胞（HELO CELL）所覆盖，海拉细胞是一种独特的“不朽”细胞系，最初是1951年从一名宫颈癌患者身上提取的。
3D打印技术已经被用于医学领域。
研究人员已经使用这种技术来制造夹板、阀门，甚至人造耳朵。
到目前为止，肯塔基州路易斯维尔大学已经用细胞打印出了人类心脏瓣膜和小静脉。
研究小组还成功地在老鼠和其他小动物身上测试了这种微小的血管。
心血管创新研究所的威廉姆斯教授认为，科学家们将能够在三到五年内打印出心脏的各个部分并组装成一颗完整的心脏。
由于细胞在实验室条件下无限分裂的能力，该海拉细胞系在过去50年里被用于一些最重要的科学突破研究。
尽管研究肿瘤最有效的方法是在临床试验中进行，但由于伦理和安全方面的限制，这类研究很难大规模开展。
为了克服这一问题，我们创建了由单层细胞组成的二维模型来模拟肿瘤的生理环境，以便以一种现实的方式测试不同类型的药物。
但是现在，科学家们可以用3D打印技术对肿瘤周围的环境进行更逼真的描绘。
在这项研究中，研究人员证实了这些细胞在打印后是活的，并检查了它们是如何增殖的以及它们对抗癌药物的耐药性。
被研究的蛋白质是MMP蛋白家族的一部分，癌细胞利用MMP蛋白家族突破周围的基质，帮助肿瘤扩散。
对抗癌药物的耐药性也是一项研究，是肿瘤恶性的良好指标。
发表在IOP杂志《生物制造》(Biofabrication)上的研究结果显示，90%的癌细胞在打印后仍然存活。
结果还表明，3D模型与2D模型相比具有更相似的肿瘤特征，在3D模型中，癌细胞具有更高的增殖率(细胞分裂的时间)和更高的抗癌药物耐药性。
这项研究的第一作者，来自中国清华大学和美国费城德雷塞尔大学的孙伟教授说:“我们已经提供了一种可伸缩的、多功能的3D癌症模型，它比2D培养的癌细胞更像自然癌症。”
“随着对这些3D模型的进一步了解，我们可以利用它们来研究癌症的发展、侵袭、转移以及使用患者的特定癌细胞进行治疗。”
“我们还可以使用这些模型来测试新的癌症治疗方法和新的癌症药物的有效性和安全性。”
The 3D-printed TUMOURS that could help doctors develop more effective cancer treatments
Researchers from Tsinghua University, China, and Drexel University, U.S. created a scaffold of proteins coated in cervical cancer cells.
Their 3D model of a cancerous tumour, created using a 3D printer, has provided a realistic 3D representation of a tumour’s environment
It is hoped that it could help in the discovery of new drugs and cast new light on how tumours develop, grow and spread throughout the body
It has only just been announced that scientists are working on printing a heart using a patient’s own cells and now a 3D model of a cancerous tumour has been created using a 3D printer.
The model, which consists of a scaffold of fibrous proteins coated in cervical cancer cells, provides a realistic 3D representation of a tumour’s environment.
It is hoped that it could help in the discovery of new drugs and cast new light on how tumours develop, grow and spread throughout the body.
A group of researchers in China and the U.S. created a model of a grid structure that measures 1cm squared and is made from gelatine, alginate and fibrin to recreate the fibrous proteins that make up the extracellular matrix of a tumour.
The grid structure is coated in Hela cells - a unique, ‘immortal’ cell line that was originally derived from a cervical cancer patient in 1951.
3D printing is already being used in medicine.
Researchers have used the technology to make splints, valves and even a human ear.
So far, the University of Louisville in Kentucky has printed human heart valves and small veins with cells.
The team has also successfully tested the tiny blood vessels in mice and other small animals.
Professor Williams, of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, believes scientists will be able to print parts and assemble an entire heart in three to five years.
Due to the cells’ ability to divide indefinitely in laboratory conditions, the cell line has been used in some of the most significant scientific breakthrough studies of the past 50 years.
Although the most effective way of studying tumours is to do so in a clinical trial, ethical and safety limitations make it difficult for these types of studies to be carried out on a wide scale.
To overcome this, 2D models, consisting of a single layer of cells are created to mimic the physiological environment of tumours so that different types of drugs can be tested in a realistic way.
But now scientists can make a more realistic representation of the environment surrounding a tumour using 3D printing.
In the study, the researchers proved that the cells were alive after printing and examined how they proliferated as well as looking at their resistance to anti-cancer drugs.
The proteins studied were part of the MMP protein family, which are used by cancer cells to break through their surrounding matrix and help tumours to spread.
Resistance to anti-cancer drugs, which was also studied, is a good indicator of tumour malignancy.
The results, which were published in the IOP’s journal Biofabrication, revealed that 90 per cent of the cancer cells remained viable after the printing process.
The results also showed that the 3D model had more similar characteristics to a tumour compared to 2D models and in the 3D model the cancer cells showed a higher proliferation rate (the time between cell divisions) and higher resistance to anti-cancer drugs.
The lead author of the research, Professor Wei Sun, from Tsinghua University, China and Drexel University in Philadelphia, U.S. said: ‘We have provided a scalable and versatile 3D cancer model that shows a greater resemblance to natural cancer than 2D cultured cancer cells.
‘With further understanding of these 3D models, we can use them to study the development, invasion, metastasis and treatment of cancer using specific cancer cells from patients.
‘We can also use these models to test the efficacy and safety of new cancer treatment therapies and new cancer drugs.’
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