Methods
cancer cells grown directly on the nanofibrous membrane (mono model), fibroblasts covering the nanofibrous membrane (layer model), and both cancer cells and fibroblasts grown on the nanofibrous membrane (mixed model). Interestingly, the mono model and layer model showed similar tissue structures, whereas the mixed model resulted in phenotypic changes to the cancer cells. Further analysis demonstrated that the mixed models promoted the expression of fibronectin and vimentin, and showed higher resistance to anticancer drugs compared with the other models. Thus, our 3D HCC model could be utilized for testing efficient anticancer therapies at various stages of cancer, with potential application to different tumor types.