Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a particularly aggressive cancer, impacting the lives of approximately 20,000 people annually in the United States. Elucidating cellular interactions that occur within the microenvironment of DLBCL tumors is crucial to the successful development of therapeutic strategies for this condition. As the in vivo microenvironment of DLBCL is quite complex and variable, in vitro platforms that can sufficiently recapitulate these multifaceted cellular interactions without introducing the complexities of in vivo systems are vital for understanding the pathophysiology of this disease. In this chapter, we present a method for fabrication and development of an in vitro DLBCL-on-chip model in which a fully vascularized, perfusable, microfluidic traverses a DLBCL tumor cell-laden hydrogel that successfully recapitulates hallmark attributes and cellular interaction that occur within the DLBCL tumor microenvironment. As this microfluidic approach makes use of common laboratory items and does not require traditional photolithography to fabricate, this system represents a vital tool that can unlock previously inaccessible research areas of the DLBCL tumor microenvironment to researchers across numerous fields.
Keywords: Lymphoma; Microfluidics; PDMS; Tumor vasculature; Tumor-on-chip.
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