Rowan University Researchers Use 3D Bioprinting to Build Living Chondrosarcoma Models for Studying Bone Cancer Invasion
核心洞察
Rowan University researchers are using 3D bioprinting to construct living tumor models of chondrosarcoma (搜索), a bone cancer resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, and most systemic treatments.
The two-year National Cancer Institute-funded project places tumor cells and mesenchymal stem cells at controlled distances within a hydrogel to study their interaction over 30 days.
The team hypothesizes that chondrosarcoma (搜索) cells reprogram recruited stem cells into "accomplices" that release tissue-degrading enzymes, facilitating tumor invasion into surrounding tissue.
A research team at Rowan University has launched a two-year project funded by the National Cancer Institute to build living, three-dimensional models of chondrosarcoma (搜索) using 3D bioprinting technology. The effort aims to unravel how this rare bone cancer — which notoriously resists chemotherapy, radiation, and most systemic treatments — co-opts healthy stem cells to drive tumor invasion.
The project is led by Andrea Vernengo, an associate professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Rowan's Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, with co-principal investigator Tae Won B. Kim, an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
The Stem Cell "Accomplice" Hypothesis
Chondrosarcoma (搜索) cells are known to release signals that attract mesenchymal stem cells, which under normal circumstances differentiate into bone and cartilage. The Rowan team hypothesizes that this cellular crosstalk reprograms the recruited stem cells into what Vernengo describes as "accomplices" — cells that secrete tissue-degrading enzymes, thereby helping the tumor penetrate surrounding tissue.
"We believe this back-and-forth communication essentially turns the stem cells into accomplices that help out the tumor cells," Vernengo said, adding that understanding the process could reveal ways to interrupt it and slow tumor growth.
Engineering a Physiologically Relevant Microenvironment
Conventional two-dimensional cell culture systems fall short in modeling chondrosarcoma (搜索), the researchers note, because cells grown in a single layer sit adjacent to one another with no tissue matrix to migrate through. Such flat cultures cannot replicate the distance, migration dynamics, and oxygen gradients that characterize chondrosarcoma's dense, poorly vascularized extracellular matrix.
To overcome these limitations, the team employs a 3D printer to deposit tumor cells and mesenchymal stem cells into separate clusters within a stack of ringed channels inside a hydrogel sample roughly one square centimeter in size. By placing the two cell types at controlled, adjustable distances, researchers can loosen the gel's texture through temperature modulation and observe whether the cells migrate toward each other over a 30-day period. Throughout this window, the team tracks cell movement, metabolic activity, and gene expression.
Vernengo originally developed the hydrogel technique to study cartilage repair; Kim subsequently proposed adapting the platform for chondrosarcoma (搜索) research.
Molecular Analysis and Future Directions
Two additional collaborators are spearheading the molecular dimension of the project. Sophia Orbach, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will perform single-cell RNA analysis to track how the identity of mesenchymal stem cells evolves over the course of tumor interaction. Susy Kohout, an associate professor of biomedical sciences, will lead the investigation into the molecular events driving that phenotypic shift.
By mapping the signaling pathways involved in stem cell reprogramming, the team aims to identify potential intervention points that could disrupt the tumor's ability to exploit its microenvironment — offering a foundation for novel therapeutic strategies against a cancer that currently lacks effective systemic treatment options.