| | Category | CELL | L14 | The Effect of Mechanical Compression on Cancer Cell |
| | Proliferation |
| | Abstract | Tissues in our body experience a variety of mechanical stimuli that are |
| | important in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. |
| | Mechanical compression is found in solid tumors and there is conflicting |
| | literature in how mechanical compression influences cell growth and |
| | proliferation. Compression comes from two forms. One is from the solid |
| | tumor directly. Compression can arise from cells in a stiff micro |
| | environment of the solid tumor as well as from the migration of a |
| | metastatic cancer cell through tight vasculature. How normal and |
| | cancer cells respond to mechanical compression is not entirely well |
| | understood. My research investigated the mechanical compression on |
| | breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) and healthy breast epithelial cells |
| | (MCF10A) for their growth and proliferation, studied the cellular |
| | response to mechanical compression to further understand the |
| | progression of cancer development. Different weights were used on |
| | agarose pads to simulate different compressive stresses on breast |
| | cancer cells and healthy breast cells. Pictures of cells were taken using |
| | fluorescence microscope after compression. Images were analyzed |
| | using National Institutes of Health ImageJ. Our results suggest that |
| | healthy breast cells are stiffer than breast cancer cells, and have a |
| | higher threshold for compression; cancer breast cell proliferation |
| | responds to mechanical compression faster than healthy breast cells at |
| | early compression stage; mechanical compression does not affect |
| | breast cancer cells after certain threshold of compression is reached. |
| | This research provides unique insight to cancer treatment by taking |
| | into account mechanical factors besides the genetic and biological |
| | factors. Medical researchers can develop therapy drugs that increase |
| | mechanical compression on the tumor to slow down the rate of tumor |
| | Bibliography | Tse, J. M. et al. “Mechanical Compression Drives Cancer Cells toward |
| | Invasive Phenotype.” Proceedings of the National Academy of |
| | Sciences, vol. 109, no. 3, 2011, pp. 911–916. |
| | doi:10.1073/pnas.1118910109.Barbier, Sandrine. “Mechanical |
| | Induction of the Tumorigenic b-Catenin Pathway by Tumour Growth |
| | Pressure.” |
| | www.researchgate.net/publication/276361411_mechanical_induction_of |