Journal: Bioactive Materials
Article Title: Multimodal profiling of CAR T cells against glioblastoma using a microengineered 3D tumor-on-a-chip model
doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.01.003
Figure Lengend Snippet: Evaluation of cytotoxic abilities of T cells against GBM cells within the GOC model. A) Microfluidic 3D invasion assay. (i) Schematic representation depicting the culture of tumor cells with T cells on day 0 (top) and day 3 (bottom), (ii) Representative phase contrast tile image overlapped with GFP (tumor cells) channel captured on day 0 to show the distribution of tumor and T cells across the experimental conditions (Scale bars: 200 μm), and (iii) Representative phase contrast tile image overlapped with GFP channel showing the migration of the U87 cells (green) from the tumor region to the stroma region across three different T cell populations. The densities of U87 are kept consistent across all conditions, and the density of T cells varies from 4 × 10 6 to 15 × 10 6 cells/mL. Images were captured 72 h after the interaction of cells within the GOC model (Scale bars: 200 μm). T-tumor, S-stroma, and V-vascular regions of GOC. B) Assessment of tumor cell migration in the presence of different T cells. (i) Quantification of migration distance from the 3D microfluidic model showing dose-dependent inhibition of U87 migration by the CAR T cells. Data were measured on Day 3 from three biological replicates ( n = 3 ) and represented as mean ± SD, T cell donors: DN26, DN28, and DN31, ∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗∗ ∗p < 0.0001. Two-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test was utilized for statistical analysis, and (ii) Comparison of migration distance of the U87 cells in the presence of different concentrations of the T cell population. Analysis performed on samples captured on Day 3 of migration ( n = 3 ) and represented as mean ± SD, T cell donors: DN26, DN28, and DN31, ∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗ ∗p < 0.0001. Two-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test was utilized for statistical analysis. C) xCELLigence-based real-time evaluation of T cell cytolytic capacity. (i) Time-course of the average cell index ( n = 3 donors ) for UTD, TV-13, and IL-13 CAR T cell groups under a 10:1 E: T condition over a 7-day co-culture, measured using the xCELLigence platform, (ii) Bar plot of xCELLigence data comparing averaged cell index values of tumor cells at Day 0 and Day 7 across UTD, TV-13, and IL-13 CAR T cell groups. Data represent mean ± SEM ( n = 3 donors ), ∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗ ∗p < 0.0001, Two-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test was utilized for statistical analysis, (iii) xCELLigence data from a representative donor (Donor 31) showing dose-dependent killing of U87 cells achieved by five doses of TV-13 CAR T cells, and (iv) IL-13 CAR T cells during a 7-day co-culture period.
Article Snippet: U87 Culture : The Uppsala 87 (U87) Malignant Glioma cell line (HTB-14, ATCC) performed as the target tumor for this study was cultured in complete media composed of Eagle's minimum essential medium (EMEM) with L-Glutamine, and supplemented with 10 % FBS, 1 % HEPES, and 1 % penicillin-streptomycin.
Techniques: Invasion Assay, Migration, Inhibition, Comparison, Co-Culture Assay