A mechanically actuated lung microvascular model reveals that breathing-like deformation enhances tumor cell extravasation
- 1Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The lung is a common site of metastasis and is continuously deformed by breathing. Whether physiological breathing mechanics influence tumor cell extravasation is unknown. To address this, we developed a mechanically actuated microphysiological system combining perfusable lung-specific microvascular networks with breathing-like cyclic deformation. Under static conditions, lung-specific networks exhibited more lung-like vascular features and higher tumor cell extravasation rates than generic networks. The mechanically actuated device reproduced physiological tissue and vascular deformation, while 24 h of cyclic actuation did not alter vessel viability, permeability, or morphology compared with unactuated controls. Pre-actuation for 24 h, followed by tumor cell perfusion under static conditions, did not alter subsequent extravasation, whereas actuation initiated immediately after perfusion significantly increased extravasation compared with unactuated controls. This biomimetic platform enables direct investigation of how breathing-like vascular deformation influences metastasis and provides a versatile tool for studying vascular mechanobiology in the lung and other mechanically active organs.
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BibTeX
@misc{floryan2026mechanically,
title = {{A mechanically actuated lung microvascular model reveals that breathing-like deformation enhances tumor cell extravasation}},
author = {M. Floryan and R. Stoll and I. Fleps and R. Coates and R. Kamm and E. Cambria},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.17.752385},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752385v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A mechanically actuated lung microvascular model reveals that breathing-like deformation enhances tumor cell extravasation
AU - M. Floryan
AU - R. Stoll
AU - I. Fleps
AU - R. Coates
AU - R. Kamm
AU - E. Cambria
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.17.752385
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752385v1
AB - The lung is a common site of metastasis and is continuously deformed by breathing. Whether physiological breathing mechanics influence tumor cell extravasation is unknown. To address this, we developed a mechanically actuated microphysiological system combining perfusable lung-specific microvascular networks with breathing-like cyclic deformation. Under static conditions, lung-specific networks exhibited more lung-like vascular features and higher tumor cell extravasation rates than generic networks. The mechanically actuated device reproduced physiological tissue and vascular deformation, while 24 h of cyclic actuation did not alter vessel viability, permeability, or morphology compared with unactuated controls. Pre-actuation for 24 h, followed by tumor cell perfusion under static conditions, did not alter subsequent extravasation, whereas actuation initiated immediately after perfusion significantly increased extravasation compared with unactuated controls. This biomimetic platform enables direct investigation of how breathing-like vascular deformation influences metastasis and provides a versatile tool for studying vascular mechanobiology in the lung and other mechanically active organs.
ER -