Investigation of Cancer Cell Extravasation Through mRNA Analysis of Organ-specific Endothelial Cells and Microfluidics

The project aims at unraveling the role of organ-specific endothelia mediating the preferential metastasisation of breast cancer cells to bone by using a multi-faceted approach, integrating microfluidics and transcriptomic profiling. Based on a recently study published by the investigators \[Jeon et al., PNAS 2015\], it can be hypothesized that phenotypic differences at the level of organ-specific endothelial cells are able to drive the preferential extravasation of breast cancer cells to specific sites. Hence, the transcriptional profile of primary organ-specific endothelial cells derived from healthy patients (i.e. non-affected by breast cancer) will be analyzed to identify phenotypic differences between organ-specific populations of endothelial cells. These analyses will allow to identify potential target genes involved in the organ-specific extravasation of cancer cells (i.e. genes differentially expressed by endothelia of preferential and non-preferential metastasisation sites). The selected genes will be silenced and the effect of gene silencing will be evaluated through microfluidic in vitro organ-specific 3D models designed to study cancer cell extravasation.

Sex

All

Minimum age

18 Years

Maximum age

65 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* age between 18-65 years
* patients undergoing cruciate ligament surgery or hip arthroplasty
* subscription of informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

\- HIV, HCV, HBV, TPHA viral