Skip to main content
. 2023 Mar 31;9(13):eade7880. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade7880

Fig. 5. HELP bioinks can be used to print models of the breast cancer microenvironment.

Fig. 5.

(A) MCF10AT cells in printed HELP bioinks retain high viability immediately after printing and after 3 days in culture as tested by a Live/Dead cytotoxicity assay (n = 3 to 4, means ± SD). (B) Representative images of MCF10AT cells in printed HELP bioinks, which form noninvasive spheroids after 6 days in culture. (C) Schematic of the recombinant ELP component of HELP, which can be engineered to contain a non–cell-interactive scrambled RDG sequence instead of the integrin-binding RGD sequence. Alternating regions of HELP-RGD (green, fluorescent microspheres) and HELP-RDG (gray, fluorescent microspheres) can be printed together to form a cohesive structure. Scale bar, 2 mm. (D) Printed MCF10AT cells treated with TGF-β are significantly less circular in printed HELP-RGD regions compared to that in HELP-RDG regions (N = 3 replicate printed structures, n = 92 to 448 cells per printed region, median ± interquartile range, two-tailed Mann-Whitney test, ****P < 0.0001). (E) Printed structures containing both MCF10AT cells (green, dyed with CellTracker Green) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs; red, dyed with CellTracker Red) maintain their spatial patterning in the support bath (before release), after release from the support bath (after release), and after 6 days in coculture. Scale bars, 2 mm.