University of Twente Student Theses
Developing a microfluidic setup for the analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)
Sandt, Ilse van de (2024) Developing a microfluidic setup for the analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs).
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| Abstract: | Breast cancer research is crucial, as one in eight women develop the disease, with metastasis causing 90% of the deaths. Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) play a key role in metastasis. In this study, a microfluidic setup was developed to gain a better understanding of the effect of shear stresses on CTCs. This setup mimics the conditions in the blood flow by creation of a stable, controlled, continuous and unidirectional flow through a microfluidic chip. Thereby inducing physiologically relevant shear stresses. The system was validated by showing that the cell viability of THP-1 monocytes was not affected by the shear stresses. Afterwards, breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were circulated in the system to induce shear stress. Cell viability assays demonstrated that for both cell lines the viability decreased due to circulation induced shear stresses. It was found that protein expression related to epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMT), investigated with immunostaining, remained the same after circulation. Lastly, it was found with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) that the gene expression related to EMT changed to a more epithelial phenotype. These results show that a microfluidic setup that successfully circulates cells was build and thereby makes the analyzation of CTCs possible. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | TNW: Science and Technology |
| Subject: | 33 physics, 42 biology, 44 medicine |
| Programme: | Biomedical Technology BSc (56226) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/101757 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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