Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Ovarian cancer, the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in the world, is associated with an overall five-year survival rate of 30%. Although significant progress has been made in surgical resection and chemotherapy, the majority of patients suffer recurrence after surgery. Increasing evidence indicates cancer stem cells (CSCs) as the non-negligible reason for relapse of ovarian cancer, is becoming a target for anti-cancer therapies. It is considered that three-dimensional (3D) matrix replicate the in vivo tumor microenvironment more closely than the standard method, which uses two-dimensional plates. Recent evidence suggests that the components and physical properties of the microenvironment may be potential factors in the regulation of CSCs. Some strategies used the chemical and biological modification of materials to mimic the stem cell niche in order to create microenvironments that control stem cell response. Poly (methyl vinyl ether-co-maleic anhydride) (PMVE-co-MA) is an FDA approved polymer with advantage of the excellent biocompatibility and non-immunogenicity. Here we report expansion of ovarian cancer stem cell through culturing ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3 in poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) crosslinked PMVE-co-MA hydrogels with different elastic modulus. The culturing in hydrogels can remarkably promote expression of CSCs markers, which was assayed by immunofluorescence and western blot analysis. The stiffness of the hydrogel plays a crucial role in promoting expression of CSCs markers. The hydrogel with lower elastic modulus is more beneficial to enrich CSCs in vitro. The stemness characters of SKOV3 cells cultured in the hydrogels were further confirmed through doxorubicin resistance assay, thus it might provide a valuable platform for CSCs research and anti-cancer therapeutics.

Biography

Naizhen Zhou has received her Master’s degree from the School of Life Science of Anhui Normal University majoring in Cytobiology. She is currently a PhD candidate of Biomedical Engineering of Southeast University, China. She has authored 3 research articles in reputed national and international journals. She is mainly working to prepare the controllable and biocompatible biomaterials as the three-dimensional cell culture scaffold, such as the poly (methyl ether vinyl-comaleic acid)-based smart hydrogels. Her current research focus is on the influence of the three-dimensional microenvironment on the expression of cancer stem cells.

Email: zhounaizhen2010@126.com