Figure 1
Experimental setup and description of the experimental procedure. (a) Schematic of the cell culture setup in a microfluidic device. Culture medium perfused through the lateral microchannels is the source of nutrients and oxygen and creates physiological gradients across the microdevice. Cells near the ‘surrogate’ blood vessels are viable, whereas oxygen/nutrient-depleted cells in the centre of the microdevice die, creating a ‘dead core’ similar to the necrotic regions found in tumours. (b) Photograph of the microdevices filled with hydrogel in the central chamber and blue/pink dyes are shown for visualisation purposes. (c) Schematic of the experimental procedure: After cultured within the microdevice for a specific amount of time, cells are extracted from the central microchamber via enzymatic degradation of the hydrogel and collected in an Eppendorf tube for subsequent RT-PCR and AMNIS image cytometry to characterise the expression different genes or proteins related to tumour metabolism.
