Proliferation of cancerous cells on pdms substrates with tunable stiffness

International Conference on Medical Physics

August 03-05, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Joanna Raczkowska1, Szymon Prauzner-Bechcicki2, Ewelina Madej1, Joanna Pabijan2, Jaroslav Lukes3, Josef Sepitka3, Jakub Rysz1, Kamil Awsiuk1, Andrzej Bernasik4, Andrzej Budkowski1 and MaÃ?Â?gorzata Lekka2

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Nucl Med Radiat Ther

Abstract :

One of the most extensively explored biomedical subjects is the search for new diagnostic and therapeutic tools, which would
allow detecting the disease at the very early stage, recognizing the type of pathology and selecting the best personalized
therapy. As the progress of cancer is determined by non-limited proliferation and migration of cancerous cells and their ability
to invade the regions occupied by other cells, it is extremely important to study cell - external surrounding interaction and to
recognize the influence of external factors on cell behavior. Mostly investigated factors influencing cellular response include
surface topography, chemistry and wettability. Recently it has been shown that also mechanical properties of the substrate play
an important role for adhesion and proliferation of cells. To study the effect of substrate stiffness on cell behavior we performed
experiments for cancer cells cultured on two groups of bare polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates, characterized by elastic
modulus of 0.75 MPa and of 2.92 MPa. The results directly prove that the substrate stiffness strongly influences the behavior and
morphological properties of cancer cells. The possibility to moderate cellular response on substrate properties differently for
each cell line enables easy and accurate distinguishment between not isolated healthy and cancer cells, which is a powerful tool,
giving new possibilities in early diagnostic and personalized therapy.