Many new drugs show promising results in laboratory research, but eventually fail in clinical trials. The interactions of tumor and stromal cells in the microenvironment and the extracellular matrix are required to promote tumor progression and metastasis. Such interactions do not form in conventional 2D cancer cell cultures that grow on a rigid, plastic, petri dishes. Therefore, there is a need to develop a 3D model that better mimics the tumor microenvironment.

We aim to create a 3D-bioprinted tumor model based on natural or synthetic polymers containing several types of cells, which resembles malignant tissue, to serve as a novel platform for drug screening. Therefore, We have synthesized and characterized a library of different hydrogel scaffolds made of natural and synthetic polymers that enabled the formation of a printable soft-solid 3D structure.

We have recapitulated the tumor heterogenic microenvironment in fibrin 3D bioink by creating a penta-culture of glioblastoma tumor cells together with primary human or murine astrocytes, microglia, microvascular brain pericytes and endothelial cells. This 3D-bioprinted tumor resembles the tumor microenvironment using one polymer as bio-ink with high reproducibility with excellent uniformity and a second sacrificial hydrogel to create the blood vessels. We have observed similar growth curves, drug response and genetic signature of glioblastoma cells grown in our unique 3D bioink platform and in in-vivo studies as opposed to 2D culture.

This 3D-bioprinted model could be the basis for potentially replacing cell cultures and animal models as a powerful platform for rapid, reproducible and robust pre-clinical drug screening assays and tool for drug efficacy evaluation.