Spheroids

The application of spheroids for cancer research and drug screening

One of the most significant objectives in cancer research is to understand tumor cell formation. Compared to 2D cell cultures, spheroids mimic solid tumors much more accurately. They help display the physiological changes that differentiate tumor cells from healthy cells. Multicellular tumor spheroid models give deeper insights into the tumor microenvironment, allowing researchers to visualize cell-to-cell interactions, how tumor cells absorb nutrients, and how they proliferate.

Spheroids are also ideal for preclinical drug screening and validation when monitoring cellular responses to therapeutic interventions. Specifically, they can reveal the tumor infiltration capacity (or incapacity) of drugs, as well as their inhibitory effects on metastasis.

Stem cell research is another significant application of spheroids, especially during the cultivation of embryonic (ESC) and neural stem cells (NSC). Recently, researchers cultured mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in spheroids and proved their regenerative and anti-inflammatory effects, which depicts potential for regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies.

Compared to other 3D cell culture methods, spheroids offer several advantages, including relevance to tumor biology, lower cost, less labor than animal models, reproducibility, ease of integration into high-throughput screening, and advanced imaging techniques.

Workflow for analyzing 3D spheroids for high-throughput screening

Imaging and analysis of spheroids are crucial to understanding the formation and behavior of tumor microenvironments. It can also aid in obtaining more insightful and realistic data from anti-cancer drug screening. Here we developed and optimized methods for the formation of 3D spheroids, as well as confocal imaging and analysis methods for high-throughput screening.