Abstract

The tumour microenvironment is a diverse interplay between cancer cells, other cell types, extracellular matrix (ECM) and vasculature. Self-assembling peptide hydrogels (PeptiGels^®, Manchester BIOGEL Ltd) are a class of biomaterials gaining popularity as they provide animal free, reproducible and highly tuneable properties and have chemical definition. Here we demonstrate how peptide hydrogels are used as a material platform to support cancer cell growth, namely MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells (representing early stage and metastatic breast cancer respectively) over at least 21 days. We will also show how to introduce vasculature to the tumour model through the co-culture of HUVECs cells. Once developed the tumour models were exposed to varying concentrations of doxorubicin and tamoxifen and metabolic activity and proliferation assessed to demonstrate not only are the peptide hydrogels suitable for modelling different stages of breast cancer, but also excellent models for the testing of anti-cancer drugs.