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Studying Adipose Tissue in the Breast Tumor Microenvironment In Vitro: Progress and Opportunities

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Background:

The breast cancer microenvironment contains a variety of stromal cells that are widely implicated in worse patient outcomes. While many in vitro models of the breast tumor microenvironment have been published, only a small fraction of these feature adipocytes. Adipocytes are a cell type increasingly recognized to have complex functions in breast cancer.

Methods:

In this review, we examine findings from recent examples of in vitro experiments modeling adipocytes within the local breast tumor microenvironment.

Results:

Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of adipocytes in the breast tumor microenvironment are covered in this review and both have uncovered interesting phenomena related to breast tumor progression.

Conclusion:

Certain aspects of breast cancer and associated adipocyte biology: extracellular matrix effects, cell-cell contact, and physiological mass transport can only be examined with a three-dimensional culture platform. Opportunities remain for innovative improvements to be made to in vitro models that further increase what is known about adipocytes during breast cancer progression.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA196018) and National Science Foundation’s Center for Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (CBET 0939511). All figures were created using BioRender.com.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, 313 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    David Mertz, Jason Sentosa & Shuichi Takayama

  2. Departments of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan, 500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Gary Luker

  3. Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, 313 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Shuichi Takayama

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  1. David Mertz
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Correspondence to Shuichi Takayama.

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Mertz, D., Sentosa, J., Luker, G. et al. Studying Adipose Tissue in the Breast Tumor Microenvironment In Vitro: Progress and Opportunities. Tissue Eng Regen Med 17, 773–785 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13770-020-00299-9

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