The microenvironment surrounding a cell or cells exhibits a powerful influence on cell behavior. These influences can be modelled in vitro. For example, using magnetically attachable stencils (MAts) and substrates of electrospun polycaprolactone nanofibers, we patterned dense cancer cell populations such that migration was either aligned with the direction of the nanofibers or counter-aligned to it. Cancer cells oriented to migrate along nanofibers increased migration while cancer cells oriented to migrate across the nanofibers decreased migration, as compared to the randomly oriented nanofiber control group. By developing techniques such as MAts, we have been able to investigate cell migration on various substrates. Such models recreate important aspects of the real tumor microenvironment and are essential to understanding cancer metastasis.
