Dr. Charlotte Rivière - Probing cancer cell response upon mechanical or chemical stimuli

Charlotte Rivière

University of Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Institut Lumière Matière, F- 69622, Villeurbanne, France
Institut Convergence Plascan, CRCL, Lyon, France
Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), France

Probing cancer cell response upon mechanical or chemical stimuli

There are number of evidences indicating that both tumour micro-environment and mechanics are playing an important role in the malignant transformation of cells and resistance to treatment [1]. We try to take into account these important issues (micro-environment and mechanics) by developing original techniques enabling to precisely control cell micro-environment, including the applied mechanical stress. In particular, we have developed agarose-based microsystems that enable a precise control of cell micro-environment in terms of mechanics (stiffness, stress) and transport of molecules (through a porous matrix) (Figure 1, [2-5]). Combined with multipositions time-lapse microscropy and image analysis, we are able to decipher cell response in-situ in such confined situation, at the single cell level and over space and time. In this seminar, I will first present our agarose-based microsystems, before describing results obtained for 2D or 3D confinement, as well as how these systems can be used to assess transport and therapeutic efficacy of novel nano- therapeutics in a more physiological environment than the classical 2D in vitro assay used. As such, it could be a valuable tool to assess the interplay between mechanics and biochemical signaling in the progression of cancer.

Selected references

• Stylianopoulos, T. et al. Reengineering the physical microenvironment of tumors (..). Trends in Cancer 4 (4), 292–319 (2018)
• Rivière C et al., Plaque de micropuits en hydrogel biocompatible (Biocompatible Hydrogel Microwell Plate). Patent 2018:FR3079524A1
• A. Prunet et al., A new agarose-based microsystem to investigate cell response to prolonged confinement. Lab on a Chip 20:4016–4030 (2020)
• S. Goodarzi et al., Quantifying nanotherapeutic penetration using a hydrogel-based microsystem as a new 3D in vitro platform. Lab on a Chip 21:2495–2510 (2021)
• P. Bregigeon et al. Integrated platform for culture, observation and parallelized electroporation of spheroids. Lab on a Chip 22, 2489-2501 (2022)