The Response of 3D Printed Breast Cancer Cells to Chemotherapy Drugs

Abstract

3D culture of breast cancer cells gives researchers a better understanding of how cells behave in the  human body and a better representation of their response to cancer therapy compared to 2D. Breast  cancer cells also interact with other cell types in the body, including endothelial cells in the blood vessels.  While endothelial cells have been co-cultured with breast cells to study tissue growth/development,  cancer metastasis, and angiogenesis, 3D breast structures have not been used to study cancer  metabolism- accomplished with this project. The purpose is to determine how cell  metabolism changes in A) 2D vs. 3D culture; B) monoculture vs. co-culture; and C) no treatment vs. Paclitaxel treatment. I hypothesize that Paclitaxel will have a greater effect on cell  metabolism when breast cells are co-cultured with endothelial cells. Data was collected with three  varying techniques, 2D Monolayer Printing, Manual 3D Hydrogel, and 3D Printing. The 3D Printed data displayed increased efficiency between trials of the same cell type and could be used to develop new  drugs in a low-cost and efficient manner. The most important finding is with both 3D techniques, the absorbance had a further decrease for the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) co-culture with cancerous cells than the 2D data. The metabolism of cancer cells is approximately eight times greater than normal cells, so decreasing the absorbance in cancer cells over noncancerous cells has a greater impact. 3D cell structures are essential to create co-cultures to study and develop drugs with cell interactions using endothelial cells.