Bioprinting of three-dimensional models to evaluate adipocyte breast cancer cell interactions and migration

There is an increasing demand for the development of novel breast cancer cell and tissue models mimicking the breast microenvironment to develop breast cancer treatments. These new models could be used for research applications, such as evaluating tumor cell behavior and screening of therapeutics. Currently, widely used two-dimensional (2D) models are limited due to a lack of appropriate chemical cues and physiological architecture of the complex breast microenvironment. Thus, three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models have been increasingly investigated for improved cell and disease modeling platforms. At present, 3D bioprinting has emerged as a popular method for fabricating 3D tissue structures. However, the primary obstacles with 3D bioprinting are cost and size of some printers. In this work, the feasibility for efficiently and economically fabricating 3D bioprinted models for the purpose of evaluating the breast tumor microenvironment, including studying the relationship between adipocytes and cancer cells has been established.