Sacrificial Bioprinting of A Mammary Ductal Carcinoma Model

Abstract

Cancer tissue engineering has remained challenging due to the limitation of the conventional biofabrication techniques to model the complex cancer microenvironment. Here we report the utilization of a sacrificial bioprinting strategy to generate biomimetic mammary duct-like structures within a hydrogel matrix, which was further populated with breast cancer cells, to model the genesis of ductal carcinoma and its subsequent outward invasion. This bioprinted mammary ductal carcinoma model provides a proof-of-concept demonstration of the value of using the sacrificial bioprinting technique for engineering biologically relevant cancer models, which may be possibly extended to other cancer types where duct-like structures are involved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.