An optofluidic constriction chip for monitoring metastatic potential and drug response of cancer cells

Cellular mechanical properties constitute a good marker to characterize tumor cells, to study cell population heterogeneity and to highlight the effect of drug treatments. In this work, we describe the fabrication and validation of an integrated optofluidic chip capable of analyzing cellular deformability on the basis of the pressure gradient needed to push a cell through a narrow constriction. We demonstrate the ability of the chip to discriminate between tumorigenic and metastatic breast cancer cells (MCF7 and MDA-MB231) and between human melanoma cells with different metastatic potential (A375P and A375MC2). Moreover, we show that this chip allows highlighting the effect on cancer cells of drugs interfering with microtubule organization (paclitaxel, combretastatin A-4 and nocodazole), which led to changes in the pressure-gradient required to push cells through the constriction. Our single-cell microfluidic device for mechanical evaluation is compact and easy to use, allowing for an extensive use in different laboratory environments.