Proliferation behavior of E. coli in a three-dimensional in vitro tumor model
Abstract
Advances in genetic engineering of non-pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) have made this organism an attractive candidate for gene delivery vehicle. However, proliferation and transport behaviors of E. coli in three-dimensional (3D) tumor environment are still unclear. To this end, we developed a novel microfluidics-based tumor model that permitted direct in situ visualization of E. coli in a 3D environment with densely packed tumor cells (B16.F10 or EMT6). The E. coli was engineered to co-express two proteinsinvasin and mCherry (inv+) so that they had the ability to enter mammalian cells and could be visualized viafluorescence