Survival-associated cellular response maintained in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) switched between soft and stiff 3D microgel culture

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) accounts for about 90% of all pancreatic cancer cases. Five-year survival rates have remained below 12% since the 1970s, in part due to the difficulty in detection before metastasis (migration and invasion into neighboring organs and glands). Mechanical memory is a concept that has emerged over the past decade that may provide a path towards understanding how invading PDAC cells “remember” the mechanical properties of their diseased (“stiff,” elastic modulus, E ≈ 10 kPa) microenvironment even whilst invading a healthy (“soft,” E ≈ 1 kPa) microenvironment. Here, we investigated the role of mechanical priming by culturing a dilute suspension of PDAC (FG) cells within a 3D, rheologically tunable microgel platform from hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties. We conducted a suite of acute (short-term) priming studies where we cultured PDAC cells in either a soft (E ≈ 1 kPa) or stiff (E ≈ 10 kPa) environment for 6 h, then removed and placed th..., , , # Survival-associated cellular response maintained in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) switched between soft and stiff 3D microgel culture

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z34tmpgn8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z34tmpgn8)

Co-corresponding authors: Siddharth Dey, [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]); Angela Pitenis, [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## File List

A) Figure2_representative_3wt.%_indentation_curve.csv

B) Figure2_representative_5wt.%_indentation_curve.csv

C) Figure2_3wt%_average_modulus.csv

D) Figure2_5wt%_average_modulus.csv

E) Figure3a_data.csv

F) Figure3b_data.csv

G) Figure5_soft_6h_1.txt

H) Figure5_soft_6h_2.txt

I) Figure5_stiff_6h_1.txt

J) Figure5_stiff_6h_2.txt

K) Figure6_soft_to_soft_1.txt

L) Figure6_soft_to_soft_2.txt

M) Figure6_soft_to_soft_3.txt

N) Figure6_soft_to_soft_4.txt

O) Figure6_soft_to_stiff_1.txt

P) Figure6_soft_to_stiff_2.txt

Q) Figure6_soft_to_stiff_3.txt

R) Figure6_stiff_to_soft_1.txt

S) Figure6_stiff_to_soft_2....