摘要
Cancer stem cells(CSCs)are a relatively rare subpopulation of tumor cell with self-renewal and tumorigenesis capabilities.CSCs are associated with cancer recurrence,progression,and chemoradiotherapy resistance.Establishing a reliable platform for CSC enrichment and study is a prerequisite for understanding the characteristics of CSCs and discovering CSC-related therapeutic strategies.Certain strategies for CSC enrichment have been used in laboratory,particularly fluorescence-activated cell sorting(FACS)and mammosphere culture.However,these methods fail to recapitulate the in vivo chemical and physical conditions in tumors,thus potentially decreasing the malignancy of CSCs in culture and yielding unreliable research results.Accumulating research suggests the promise of a biomaterial-based three-dimensional(3 D)strategy for CSC enrichment and study.This strategy has an advantage over conventional methods in simulating the tumor microenvironment,thus providing a more effective and predictive model for CSC laboratory research.In this review,we first briefly discuss the conventional methods for CSC enrichment and study.We then summarize the latest advances and challenges in biomaterial-based 3 D CSC platforms.Design strategies for materials,morphology,and chemical and physical cues are highlighted to provide direction for the future construction of platforms for CSC enrichment and study.
基金
supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11832008 and 81703012)
the Program of the Postgraduate Tutor Team of Chongqing Education Commission(2018)
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Grant No.2019CDXYSG0004)
the Visiting Scholar Foundation of the Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology(Chongqing University),Ministry of Education(Grant No.CQKLBST-2017-005)。
