Datasets describing hydrogel properties and cellular metrics for modeling of tumor dormancy

Abstract Breast cancer dormancy is an underlying challenge toward targeting and controlling metastatic recurrence and disease progression. Development of engineered, well-defined in vitro models is necessary to systematically recapitulate tumor dormancy and investigate potential therapeutic strategies. Toward this end, a set of sixteen hydrogel formulations with varying degrees of adhesivity and crosslink density was developed for encapsulation, three-dimensional (3D) culture, and phenotypic assessment of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The hydrogel adhesivity was regulated by incorporation of RGDS peptide conjugated to acrylate poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-RGDS) and the crosslink density by incorporation of N-vinyl pyrrolidinone (NVP). Here, we present data concerning the characterization of hydrogel properties (PEG-RGDS incorporation, hydrogel crosslink density, and hydrogel diffusivity as a function of NVP concentration) and phenotypic metrics (viability, early apoptosis, proliferation, metabolic activity, viable cell density, and morphological features) of encapsulated MDA-MB-231s over 15 days in culture. Interpretation of this data can be found in a research article titled “Tunable Hydrogels for Controlling Phenotypic Cancer Cell States to Model Breast Cancer Dormancy and Reactivation” (Pradhan et al., 2019) [1].