Effect of mechanical constriction forces on breast cell lines transcripts

During metastatic dissemination, circulating tumour cells (CTCs) enter capillary beds, where they experience mechanical constriction forces. A high-throughput microfluidic platform mimicking human capillaries to investigate the impact of mechanical constriction forces on malignant and normal breast cell lines was developed. Cells were collected after transiting the constrictions, followed by RNA extraction and sequencing. The non-malignant cell line experienced transcriptional changes, particularly downregulation of epithelial markers, while the metastatic cell lines showed minimal alterations. In this study, the effects of capillary constriction forces on the transcriptomics of the breast cell lines MDA-MB-231, LM2 and MCF-10 were investigated. Cells transited microfluidic constrictions of 5x5x150µm3 (width by height by length) dimensions under physiological hydrostatic pressures (7-33cmH2O) and were collected upon transit, followed by RNA-seq. Controls of untransited cells for each cell line were included. For each condition (control and cells that had transited the constriction), duplicates were included.