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Abstract
Breast cancer metastasis (BCM) remains one of the leading causes of death in women with cancer. Research over the last several decades has indicated that the microenvironment plays a critical role in the activation of the metastatic cascade. Inflammatory cytokines secreted by adipocytes in the tumor microenvironment, such as leptin, can play key roles in metastasis and are of interest as predictive diagnostic indicators. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) chitosan-collagen scaffolds were created and evaluated to characterize their mechanical properties. Studies were performed to assess cell viability and metastatic protein expression to determine the scaffold efficacy for mimicking BCM. Leptin was then incorporated into the 3D models to study the effects of leptin on BCM. Expression of metastasis-related cytokines was measured towards building a proof-of-concept statistical model for predicting BCM based on varying levels of biomarkers, such as leptin.