In vitro tumor spheroids are generated using scaffold-free technologies, e.g. hanging drop, agar gel sandwich, and low adhesive surfaces, etc, for drug screening applications. Some of these platforms are currently adapting towards reducing spheroid time formation and increasing highthroughput workflow. Here, we show the use of 3-dimensional (3D) polymer scaffolds to generate multicellular spher...

Lack of an in vitro model of metastasis has been a major impediment in understanding the molecular regulation of metastatic processes, and identification of specific therapeutic targets. We have established an in vitro model which displayed the signatures of metastatic phenotype such as migration, invasiveness, chemoresistance and expression of cancer stem-cell markers. This in vitro model was ...

Ovarian cancer is characterized by extensive peritoneal metastasis, with tumor spheres commonly found in the malignant ascites. This is associated with poor clinical outcomes and currently lacks effective treatment. Both the three-dimensional (3D) environment and the dynamic mechanical forces are very important factors in this metastatic cascade. However, traditional cell cultures fail to recap...

Multicellular tumor spheroids (MTS) from seven murine solid tumors have been compared in terms of their growth rate and the fraction of the cells that are in cycle. Growth rates ranged from a low of 19 micron/day through a maximum of 106 micron/day, demonstrating a far wider range of growth rates than is observed when the same tumors are grown as monolayers. Through the use of an [125I]iodourid...

We study multicellular tumor spheroids by introducing a new three-dimensional agent-based Voronoi-Delaunay hybrid model. In this model, the cell shape varies from spherical in thin solution to convex polyhedral in dense tissues. The next neighbors of the cells are provided by a weighted Delaunay triangulation with on average linear computational complexity. The cellular interactions include dir...

To understand the development of the trabecular meshwork of the eye, floating cellular aggregates (multicellular spheroids) were formed from human trabecular cells in a non-adherent environment of culture and incubated for up to one month. Dissociated trabecular cells formed multicellular spheroids within one day in the non-adherent environment, and apoptosis continued to occur in the spheroids...

Abstract The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a critical role in cancer proliferation, metastasis, & responses of patients to treatment. Within the TME, tumor-initiated signaling results aberrant activation stromal immune cell populations suppress surveillance, induce angiogenesis, establish premetastatic niches. Macrophages, subset antigen presenting myeloid cells, are most abundant TME ...

BACKGROUND Prostaspheres-based three dimensional (3D) culture models have provided insight into prostate cancer (PCa) biology, highlighting the importance of cell-cell interactions and the extracellular matrix (EMC) in the tumor microenvironment. Although these 3D classical spheroid platforms provide a significant advance over 2D models mimicking in vivo tumors, the limitations involve no contr...

BACKGROUND Migration, proliferation, and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are dependent upon a complex three-dimensional (3D) bone marrow microenvironment. Although osteoblasts control the HSC pool, the subendosteal niche is complex and its cellular composition and the role of each cell population in HSC fate have not been established. In vivo models are complex and involve su...