A research team of University of California San Diego has introduced a device to evaluate stickiness of tumor cells through which speculation of cancer may get improved. This device can also measure the stickiness of the cancer cells and helps the practitioners to understand the prognostic evaluation of patients’ tumor.
According to the researchers, this device consists of a microfluidic chamber coated with an adhesive protein in which cancer cells are used to be placed and let them to adhere. After the adhering process, to detach cells, a fluid is used to be drive through it. As a result, the fluid moves at defining speed. With the movement of the fluid, the cells in the chamber experiences a shear stress. The shear stress gets higher as the fluid moves faster. The team has analyzed the cells by isolating them and collecting at the shear stress they experienced. Researchers told that, the cells which get collected at lower shear stress are weakly adherent and with higher shear stress are strongly adherent. The device identifies cells as per their physical capability of clinging to their environment.
In a research, the team observed that the weakly adherent cells from the same tumor, as of strongly adherent cells, wandered and captured other tissues more. Researchers also noted that tumor has a tendency to reoccur within five years and the tissues associated with these weakly adherent cells, increases the reoccurring ability of patients’ tumor by five times.
Researchers have pointed the longstanding problem which specified the difficulty to universally identify and mark the most aggressive cells of tumor. The team expects from the new device and the related study it will help in recognizing the highly metastatic cells within a heterogeneous tumor cell community.
Adam Engler, the senior author of the study and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School states, “This new device could be the first step to better assess how likely tumor recurrence is.” He added, “Patients with few of these aggressive cells lying dormant in their surrounding tissue may be less likely to see a tumor reoccur 5, 10, or 20 years later.”
