Generation of High-Throughput Three-Dimensional Tumor Spheroids for Drug Screening.

ABSTRACT: Cancer cells have routinely been cultured in two dimensions (2D) on a plastic surface. This technique, however, lacks the true environment a tumor mass is exposed to in vivo. Solid tumors grow not as a sheet attached to plastic, but instead as a collection of clonal cells in a three-dimensional (3D) space interacting with their neighbors, and with distinct spatial properties such as the disruption of normal cellular polarity. These interactions cause 3D-cultured cells to acquire morphological and cellular characteristics which are more relevant to in vivo tumors. Additionally, a tumor mass is in direct contact with other cell types such as stromal and immune cells, as well as the extracellular matrix from all other cell types. The matrix deposited is comprised of macromolecules such as col

SUBMITTER: Griner LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6235107 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature