Co-Culture of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells and fibroblasts induces altered integrin expression associated with 3D structural formation.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) persists as a prevalent head and neck malignancy, despite incremental progress in elucidating its intricate pathogenic mechanisms over the past decades. This is primarily due to the lack of effective cellular models that accurately mimic the in vivo tumor microenvironment. Three-dimensional (3D) cell models offer a distinct advantage over traditional two-dimensional cultures by better representing the complex tumor microenvironment. Therefore, this study aimed to establish 3D cellular models that simulate the interactions among cancer cells, fibroblasts, and the extracellular matrix, and to examine changes in integrin subunit expression within this context. By co-culturing fibroblasts with four NPC cell lines (CNE1, TW03, CNE2, and 5-8 F), we successfully generated four distinct 3D models, each displaying unique morphological and growth characteristics. Furthermore, we examined the impact of co-culture on cell proliferation and analyzed the expression profiles of integrin α5, β1, and αV across these different 3D models.