Electron microscopy imaging and mechanical characterization of T47D multicellular tumor spheroids-Older spheroids reduce interstitial space and become stiffer.

ABSTRACT: Multicellular cancer spheroids are an in vitro tissue model that mimics the three-dimensional microenvironment. As spheroids grow, they develop the gradients of oxygen, nutrients, and catabolites, affecting crucial tumor characteristics such as proliferation and treatment responses. The measurement of spheroid stiffness provides a quantitative measure to evaluate such structural changes over time. In this report, we measured the stiffness of size-matched day 5 and day 20 tumor spheroids using a custom-built microscale force sensor and conducted transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging to compare the internal structures. We found that older spheroids reduce interstitial spaces in the core region and became significantly stiffer. The measured elastic moduli were 260±100 and 680±150 Pa,

SUBMITTER: Madhavan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10212087 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature