Fig. 1: Ovarian cancer invasive behaviour is reproduced in adipose tissue-mimicking OHGs.

a Schematic representation of adipose tissue-mimicking collagen-based organo-hydrogels (OHGs). b BODIPY (green) staining of human peritoneal adipose tissue and OHG (representative images from n = 7 patients and n = 3 OHGs). c Quantification of human peritoneal adipocyte (n = 100 adipocytes/tissue from 7 patients) and silicone oil microdroplet (n = 100 microdroplets from 3 OHGs) diameter. d Quantification of volume fraction occupied by oil in peritoneal adipose tissues (n = 7 patients) and OHGs (n = 3 gels). e Storage moduli of hydrogels and human peritoneal tissues (n = 5 gels; n = 9 adipose and n = 5 connective tissues). f Normalised stress-relaxation curves of hydrogels and human peritoneal tissues (n = 5 gels or tissues). g Spheroid area after 7 d relative to day 0 of multiple ovarian cancer cell lines (n = 3 spheroids). h Spheroid area comparison of ovarian cancer cell lines after 7 d in collagen or OHGs relative to the collagen average (n = 3 spheroids). i Collagen-I (grey) and mRFP-OVCAR8 nuclei (red) staining of OVCAR8 cells seeded on top of collagen or OHG at 25 μm gel depth after 7 d in culture (representative images from n = 3 experiments). j Quantification of hydrogel organotypic invasion of OVCAR8 cells after 7 d (n = 3 experiments). Rhombuses indicate the average. k BODIPY (green), mRFP-OVCAR8 (red), and collagen I (grey) staining of peritoneal tissue explants and mRFP-OVCAR8 cells after 7 d in culture (representative images from n = 3 experiments). Arrowheads indicate invading mRFP-OVCAR8 cells. l Quantification of mRFP-OVCAR8 organotypic invasion into human peritoneal tissues after 7 d (n = 3 tissues from distinct donors). Rhombuses indicate the average. m BODIPY (green) and mRFP (red) staining of mRFP-OVCAR8 cells in peritoneal tissue explants and OHGs (42 μm depth) after 7 d culture (representative images from n = 3 experiments). n Quantification of mRFP-OVCAR8 organotypic invasion into human peritoneal tissues or OHGs after 7 d (n = 3 tissues from distinct donors or gels). Rhombuses indicate the average. For the data in (c, d, g, h, j, l and n), a two-sided unpaired t test was performed. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s correction for multiple comparisons was performed for the data in (e). Error bars in (e) represent the s.e.m. Scale bars, 50 μm (b, i, m), 100 μm (k). Components of (a) have been created in BioRender. Gautrot, J. (2025) https://BioRender.com/rk3jchz. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.