Bailey Sayles

Graduation Semester and Year

2014

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Department

Bioengineering

First Advisor

Young-Tae Kim

Abstract

Despite the current medical options available to patients, cancer cells frequently remain after treatment and metastasize. This is particularly significant because secondary cancers account for 90% of cancer-related fatalities. Using standard lithography techniques to make PDMS-based microchannel devices, different microenvironments for studying metastasizing (MDA-MB-231) and non-metastasizing (MCF-7) breast cancer cells were created. While the cells were in the narrow and wide microchannels, effects of the anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel at different concentrations were examined and compared with the traditional Transwell assay. Paclitaxel stabilizes microtubules inside the cell and restricts replication, making it an ideal drug to target for quickly dividing cancer cells. Based on tests quantifying migration and viability of the cancer cells, it was found that Paclitaxel's effect significantly decreases when cells are in narrow microchannels, which is a similar environment to when they are migrating inside the body. A powerful finding included the decreased expression of microtubules in the confined microchannels, indicating a potential reason why migrating cells are not as susceptible to common chemotherapy drugs.

Disciplines

Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering | Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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