Analysis of the Dynamic Metastasis Mechanism in Liver Cancer Cells Using a Biomimetic Microfluidic Vascular Network

Liver cancer is one of the most common and lethal malignant tumors worldwide, of which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 80%. In the process of forming liver cancer, cancer cell metastasis is the only path. First, cancer cells need to adhere to the walls of capillaries, then penetrate blood vessels and enter liver tissue, resulting in liver cancer. Existing diagnostic methods for cancer cannot reveal and study this process, so we need to simulate the microenvironment in vitro and observe the metastasis mechanism of liver cancer cells based on this. This article describes the design and manufacture of a biomimetic capillary network to achieve this goal. By combining maskless laser direct writing with backside lithography, a biomimetic vascular network with a semi-circular cross-section was created that more closely resembles real capillaries. This article mainly studies the influence of topological structure on cell flow velocity, and simulates the flow velocity and pressure of cell solutions in vascular networks to investigate the differences between the biomimetic capillary network and the real situation, in order to further optimize and provide new ideas for the study of the liver cancer cell metastasis and the in vitro dynamic mechanism.