Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Materials Science
Session: 2
Benny Alexander - Oakwood University
Co-Author(s): Vincent Hembrick-Holloman, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama; Dr. Temesgen Samuel, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
Prostate cancer has been seen to be the second leading cause of cancer related death among men in the United States, and bone has been shown to be a common site for prostate cancer metastasis. The aim of this study was to visualize and investigate the interaction of prostate cancer cells and bone derived osteoblast cells with hydroxyapatite/polycaprolactone-based scaffolds. Understanding how these cancer cells interact within the surrounding bone-like environment is critical to create an in vitro system to simulate and study tumor growth and progression in bones. In this study, hydroxyapatite/polycaprolactone-based scaffolds were 3D printed and used as a three-dimensional in vitro system to resemble the micro-environment in which metastatic prostate cancer cells may grow. PC3 prostate cancer cells and bone derived osteoblast cells were seeded onto hydroxyapatite/PCL-based scaffolds over the course of 12 hours 1, day, 3 days, and 5 days, then subjected to a formaldehyde fixative, and viewed under a scanning electron microscope to further investigate how the metastatic niche is created within this microenvironment. Results from the experiment show that PC3 cancer cells do not adhere to our scaffold and PC3 cells may even cause a disassociation between the hydroxyapatite/PCL-based scaffold and osteoblast cells.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): NIH SC3GM109314; U54MD008149; G12MD007585; DMR REU-1659506
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Temesgen Samuel, tsamuel@tuskegee.edu
Role: I was directly involved with cell culturing, scaffold slurry creation and printing, fixation, platinum sputtering, and viewing the cells under the scanning electron microscope.