Scaffold-free generation of uniform adipose spheroids for metabolism research and drug discovery.

ABSTRACT: Adipose tissue dysfunction is critical to the development of type II diabetes and other metabolic diseases. While monolayer cell culture has been useful for studying fat biology, 2D culture often does not reflect the complexity of fat tissue. Animal models are also problematic in that they are expensive, time consuming, and may not completely recapitulate human biology because of species variation. To address these problems, we have developed a scaffold-free method to generate 3D adipose spheroids from primary or immortal human or mouse pre-adipocytes. Pre-adipocytes self-organize into spheroids in hanging drops and upon transfer to low attachment plates, can be maintained in long-term cultures. Upon exposure to differentiation cues, the cells mature into adipocytes, accumulating large lip

SUBMITTER: Klingelhutz AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5765134 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature