Modeling the Circulation of Tumor Cells in Blood

Modeling the Circulation of Tumor Cells in Blood

Submitted by Michelle B. Chen in the Kamm Laboratory at MIT

This image depicts a capillary-like network (green) grown inside an in vitro microfluidic device. The synthesized vasculature, which features physiological-like geometry and barrier function, is then perfused with tumor cells (red) in order to model the circulation of tumor cells in the blood, a phenomenon that occurs when tumor cells escape from the primary tumor site and invade into the surrounding blood vessels. The image was taken to validate the ability of our in vitro micro-capillary networks to be perfused with tumor cells.

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