In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis.
A, S., D, A., MHC, L., S, O., GF, B., AM, P., R, J., C, L., KT, W., & D, V. (2026). In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis.. Nature communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75833-9
A S, D A, MHC L, S O, GF B, AM P, et al. In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis.. Nature communications. 2026; doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75833-9
A S, D A, MHC L, et al. In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis.[J]. Nature communications. 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75833-9.
@article{a2026,
author = {Shakeri A and Abdo D and Lei MHC and Okhovatian S and Beeghly GF and Popovic AM and Jiang R and Liu C and Wagner KT and Vosoughi D},
title = {In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis.},
journal = {Nature communications},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-75833-9},
note = {PMID: 42637759},
}
TY - JOUR AU - Shakeri A AU - Abdo D AU - Lei MHC AU - Okhovatian S AU - Beeghly GF AU - Popovic AM AU - Jiang R AU - Liu C AU - Wagner KT AU - Vosoughi D TI - In vitro multi-organ invasion model for exploring cardiac resistance to cancer metastasis. T2 - Nature communications PY - 2026 DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-75833-9 AN - PMID:42637759 ER -
Despite the systemic spread of cancer, the ventricular myocardium is one of the least common sites of metastasis-a phenomenon that remains poorly understood. To examine this, we develop the Multi-organ Invasion Device (MInD), an organ-on-a-chip platform that enables multi-organ culture under flow. Organ compartments are connected in MInD using PermeoTubes-3D-printed porous conduits that support cancer cell intravasation, migration, and extravasation. In dual-organ devices, where highly aggressive breast cancer cells are co-cultured with either hepatic or cardiac tissue, invasion into cardiac tissue is significantly suppressed relative to hepatic co-culture. Importantly, in cardiac-hepatic-cancer tri-culture, the presence of cardiac tissue reduces overall invasion, with cancer cells preferentially migrating toward hepatic compartments. Cytokine profiling and RNA sequencing reveal that cardiac co-culture suppresses cell metastasis and invasion, while inducing immune activation. Overall, this platform presents an approach for uncovering organ-specific drivers of metastasis, accelerating future discovery of metastasis-inhibiting therapies.