In vitro design of mesenchymal to epithelial transition of prostate cancer metastasis using 3D nanoclay bone-mimetic scaffolds.

Nanocomposite scaffolds show extensive applications in regenerative medicine and have shown promise as in vitro analogues of human tissue that can be used for the study of diseases. The complex nature of cancer metastasis is recently investigated using several 3D scaffold models. Herein, we report a polymer-nanoclay-based in vitro tumour model that recapitulates early stage of prostate cancer (PCa) colonization during skeletal metastasis on bone mimetic scaffolds. A unique cell culture system termed as "sequential culture (SC)" has been applied to create a bone-mimetic niche for colonization of PCa cells. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were seeded on the bone-mimetic scaffolds, where they differentiated into bone cells and then formed mineralized bone matrix without osteogenic supplements. Further, PCa was seeded on MSCs-seeded scaffolds. Sequentially cultured PCa cells with MSCs formed self-organized multicellular tumoroids with distinct tight cellular junctions and hypoxic core regions. Extensive quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction experiments were performed to evaluate the expressions of genes related to osteotropic bone metastasis of PCa. On the nanoclay scaffolds, the MSCs differentiated to mature osteoblasts and epithelial to mesenchymal transition was inhibited whereas mesenchymal to epithelial transition was enhanced, as also the hypoxia increased angiogenesis, and finally, PCa cells initiated osteoblastic lesion. Further, the SC technique has significant effects on expression of key metastasis-related genes. Therefore, the SC-based tumour model can be applied to recapitulate more consistent osteotropic cancer cell behavior in understanding tumour biology. This model also can be implemented for drug screening to target colonization stage of PCa cells in the bone microenvironment.