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At Fluxion, we’re passionate about delivering cell-based and cell-free solutions that facilitate the transformation of research discoveries into new ways to diagnose and treat patients. By characterizing molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease, Fluxion’s platforms help bridge the translational medicine gap, enabling rapid advances in disease research, drug discovery, and the development of diagnostic tests.

Cancer Cell Homing

and oncology research

Cancer cell homing is an extensive, all-encompassing operation that covers several oncological processes - tethering, rolling and adhesion to the endothelium, followed by transmigration, migration, and chemotaxis to the site of the tumor. The bulk of these mechanisms occur in the blood vessels. In order to study cancer cell homing in vitro, one must do it in a physiologically relevant environment - in a system with shear flow.

The BioFlux system mimics the physiological conditions of the vasculature. With the ability to control shear flow, temperature, and pressure, the system can replicate how cancer cells behave during the homing process. The system can be used for several other oncological analyses, including cancer cell behavior during EMT, screening different types of tumor cells for invasive phenotypes, screening compounds to inhibit or otherwise affect invasion and or angiogenesis, or to study chemotaxis of circulating cells in response to stimuli or inhibition.

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Representative monolayers before (scale bar is 100 microns) and after shear flows were applied. In the after monolayers, adherent cells appear as phase bright circles, an example is outlined with a white circle (scale bar=200 microns). Phase optics were adjusted to emphasize adherent cells.

 

HL60 Cells Rolling on TNFa-activated HUVEC layer

HL60 lymphocytes rolling on BioFlux channels coated with a G+HUVEC monolayer. Multiple layers can be grown on the plate and tested with different treatments. 

HubSpot Video

 

Key BioFlux Advantages For Cancer Cell Homing Studies

  • Analyze the different steps of cancer cell homing under shear flow (tethering and rolling, adherence to endothelium, etc.)

  • Coat channels with different proteins and cell types to study cancer cell adherence

  • Utilize time-lapse microscopy under flow and post-experiment image analysis to determine rolling distance

  • Create two microenvironments within a microfluidic channel using a two inlet channel and parallel flowstreams

  • Migration & invasion assays can be performed label-free

  • Couple BioFlux analysis with IsoFlux CTC isolation technology

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