Development of a microfluidic platform to maintain viability of micro-dissected tumor slices in culture

One of the issues limiting the development of personalized medicine is the absence of realistic models that reflect the nature and complexity of tumor tissues. We described a new tissue culture approach that combines a microfluidic chip with the microdissected breast cancer tumor. “Tumor-on-a-chip” devices are suitable for precision medicine since the viability of tissue samples is maintained during the culture period by continuously feeding fresh media and eliminating metabolic wastes from the tissue. However, the mass transport of oxygen, which arguably is the most critical nutrient, is rarely assessed. According to our results, transportation of oxygen provides satisfactory in vivo oxygenation within the system. A high level of dissolved oxygen, around 98%–100% for every 24 h, was measurable in the outlet medium. The microfluidic chip system developed within the scope of this study allows living and testing tumor tissues under laboratory conditions. In this study, tumors were generated in CD-1 mice using MDA-MB-231 and SKBR-3 cell lines. Microdissected tumor tissues were cultured both in the newly developed microfluidic chip system and in conventional 24-well culture plates. Two systems were compared for two different types of tumors. The confocal microscopy analyses, lactate dehydrogenase release, and glucose consumption values showed that the tissues in the microfluidic system remained more viable with respect to the conventional well plate culturing method, up to 96 h. The new culturing technique described here may be superior to conventional culturing techniques for developing new treatment strategies, such as testing chemotherapeutics on tumor samples from individual patients.