Utilization of mechano-biological models to predict cell adhesion interactions between bone marrow endothelial cells and breast cancer cells.

The purpose of our study was to produce a mechano-biological model that could characterize and predict adhesive interactions between human breast cancer cells (MB435) and human bone marrow endothelial cells (HBME). Bone is a common site of metastasis for breast cancer and the mechanisms of metastasis are not fully characterized. In this study we have combined experimental and modelling approaches to probe interactions of human bone marrow endothelial cells (HBMEC-60) with breast cancer cells (MB435). Specifically, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure adhesion forces between a single MB435 cell (attached to the AFM tip) and a monolayer of HBMEC-60 cells for differing times of contact. In addition, we developed a stochastic model of the individual adhesive interactions that occur between the two cell-types to mimic the AFM experimental protocol. This was accomplished by formulating a 2D discrete stochastic-elastic computational model to study the adhesion binding dynamics that underpin cell-cel...