Diabetic hyperglycemia promotes primary tumor progression through glycation-induced tumor extracellular matrix stiffening.

Diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic disorder that is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Despite this correlation, the interplay between tumor progression and diabetes, particularly with regard to stiffening of the extracellular matrix, is still mechanistically unclear. Here, we established a murine model where hyperglycemia was induced before breast tumor development.

Versatile methods for the fabrication of polyvinylidene fluoride microstructures.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microstructures are of interest for a number of BioMEMS applications both for their piezoelectric and biocompatible properties. In this work, simple soft lithography-based techniques were developed to fabricate PVDF microstructures with diverse geometries, including microarrays of pillars, lines, and wells. Four different microstructure configurations were created: freestanding, stamped discontinuous, stamped continuous and imprinted patterns.