Eva Oceane Epinette,  

Sponsor or Client: 

Title:

Glioblastoma Cell Migration and Cytoskeleton Morphology on Electrospun Fibers

Abstract:

Glioblastoma is an aggressive and invasive grade IV brain cancer. It is the most common form of brain cancer in adults with a prevalence of 3.21 per 100,000 people. Due to its invasive and migratory behavior, glioblastoma is associated with a relapse rate of 90% (Thakkar et al., 2023).
The cytoskeleton is a dynamic structure found in every eukaryotic cell, that is composed of several types of fibers, that serves essential functions of structure for the cell, and assist with numerous cellular processes including migration (Schaks et al., 2019). Actin microfilaments and microtubules are the two main types of fibers composing the cytoskeleton. Their reorganization enables the formation of membrane protrusions allowing the dynamic elongation of the cell and a directional mobility that increases the migratory phenotype (Fife et al., 2014). As the cytoskeleton plays a major role in the migration of cells, it is relevant to study its morphology and its remodeling during cancer cell migration.
Electrospinning is a technique that enables the fabrication of scaffolds where fiber alignment can be controlled in a way that has proven to efficiently mimic the glioblastoma extracellular matrix (Unal et al., 2020).
The goal of this study was to create aligned and randomly organized electrospun fibers to determine the influence of fiber alignment on glioblastoma cell migration and the morphology of their actin and microtubules cytoskeleton, by culturing glioblastoma cells on the electrospun fibers, measuring the rate of migration, and making immunofluorescent detection of the cytoskeleton.