The development of advanced biological models like microphysiological systems, able to rebuild the complexity of the physiological and/or pathological environments at a single-cell detail level in an in-vivo-like approach, is proving to be a promising tool to understand the mechanisms of interactions between different cell populations and main features of several diseases. In this frame, the tumor-immune microenvironment on a chip represents a powerful tool to profile key aspects of cancer progression, immune activation, and response to therapy in several immuno-oncology applications. In the present chapter, we provide a protocol to identify and characterize the time evolution of apoptosis by time-lapse fluorescence and confocal imaging in a 3D microfluidic coculture murine model including cancer and spleen cells.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Cancer; Fluorescence microscopy; Micro-physiological systems; Microenvironment; Microfluidics; Organs-on-chip; Timelapse imaging.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.