Fig. 7

Mimicking chemical and physical microenvironments of tumors in the microfluidic device; a In vivo, tumor vasculature serves as the route for nutrients and drugs; b Microfluidic platform to recapitulate in vivo tumor microenvironments (TMEs). Immunofluorescence images of the tumor spheroid with the vasculature; c Projection image of the tumor spheroid. Scale bar: 200 μm; d Orthogonal view from different planes (x–y, x–z, or y–z) of the confocal microscope images corresponding to the white rectangle area in c). White arrows indicate the vascular lumen. Scale bar: 50 μm. Red: RFP-HUVECs, yellow: E-cadherin (Alexa Fluor 633), blue: nuclei (Hoechst 33,342); e Drug administration to the tumor spheroids under static 56 condition. 2D projection image (average projection) reconstructed using z-stack images. Red: RFP-HUVECs, yellow: E-cadherin (MCF-7), blue: nuclei. The right column indicates high magnification views of the white rectangle areas in the left column. Scale bars: 200 μm (left column), 100 μm (right column). White arrows indicate E-cadherin-negative areas around the large blood vessels. Drug administration to the tumor spheroids under perfusion condition; f Tumor spheroids with the administration of paclitaxel (0, 5, and 50 ng/mL) at 0 h (before administration), and 48 h (after administration for 24 h and incubation with EGM-2 for 24 h). The color indicates the fluorescence of RFP-HUVECs. Scale bar: 200 μm. All the images are reprinted with permission from [175]