Abstract
Cells cultured in a monolayer have been a central tool in molecular and cell biology, toxicology, biochemistry, and so on. Therefore, most methods for adherent cells in cell biology are tailored to this format of cell culturing. Limitations and disadvantages of monolayer cultures, however, have resulted in the ongoing development of advanced cell culturing techniques. One such technique is culturing cells as multicellular spheroids, that had been shown to mimic the physiological conditions found in vivo more accurately. This chapter presents a novel method for separation of the spheroid rim and core in mature spheroids (>21 days) for further analysis using advanced molecular biology techniques such as flow cytometry, viability estimations, comet assay, transcriptomics, proteomics and lipidomic. This fast and gentle disassembly of intact spheroids into rim and core fractions, and further into viable single-cell suspension provides an opportunity to bridge the gap from 3D cell culture to current state-of-the-art analysis methods.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Pampaloni F, Reynaud EG, Stelzer EH (2007) The third dimension bridges the gap between cell culture and live tissue. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 8(10):839–845. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2236
Edmondson R, Broglie JJ, Adcock AF, Yang L (2014) Three-dimensional cell culture systems and their applications in drug discovery and cell-based biosensors. Assay Drug Dev Technol 12(4):207–218. https://doi.org/10.1089/adt.2014.573
Antoni D, Burckel H, Josset E, Noel G (2015) Three-dimensional cell culture: a breakthrough in vivo. Int J Mol Sci 16(3):5517–5527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16035517
Wrzesinski K, Rogowska-Wrzesinska A, Kanlaya R et al (2014) The cultural divide: exponential growth in classical 2D and metabolic equilibrium in 3D environments. PLoS One 9(9):e106973. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0106973
Mehta G, Hsiao AY, Ingram M et al (2012) Opportunities and challenges for use of tumor spheroids as models to test drug delivery and efficacy. J Control Release 164(2):192–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2012.04.045
Asthana A, Kisaalita WS (2012) Microtissue size and hypoxia in HTS with 3D cultures. Drug Discov Today 17(15-16):810–817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2012.03.004
Zanoni M, Piccinini F, Arienti C et al (2016) 3D tumor spheroid models for in vitro therapeutic screening: a systematic approach to enhance the biological relevance of data obtained. Sci Rep 6:19103. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep19103
Breslin S, O’Driscoll L (2013) Three-dimensional cell culture: the missing link in drug discovery. Drug Discov Today 18(5-6):240–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2012.10.003
Godoy P, Hewitt NJ, Albrecht U et al (2013) Recent advances in 2D and 3D in vitro systems using primary hepatocytes, alternative hepatocyte sources and non-parenchymal liver cells and their use in investigating mechanisms of hepatotoxicity, cell signaling and ADME. Arch Toxicol 87(8):1315–1530. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-013-1078-5
Fey SJ, Wrzesinski K (2012) Determination of drug toxicity using 3D spheroids constructed from an immortal human hepatocyte cell line. Toxicol Sci 127(2):403–411. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfs122
Strober W (2001) Trypan blue exclusion test of cell viability. Curr Protoc Immunol. https://doi.org/10.1002/0471142735.ima03bs21
Fey SJ, Wrzesinski K (2013) Determination of acute lethal and chronic lethal dose thresholds of Valproic acid using 3D spheroids constructed from the immortal human hepatocyte cell line HepG2/C3A. Valproic acid: pharmacology, mechanisms of action and clinical implications (pp 141–165). Nova Science Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 978-162417952-5
Wigg AJ, Phillips JW, Wheatland L, Berry MN (2003) Assessment of cell concentration and viability of isolated hepatocytes using flow cytometry. Anal Biochem 317(1):19–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0003-2697(03)00057-5
Zegura B, Filipic M (2004) Application of in vitro comet assay for genotoxicity testing. In: Methods in pharmacology and toxicology. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey
Tung JW, Heydari K, Tirouvanziam R et al (2007) Modern flow cytometry: a practical approach. Clin Lab Med 27(3):453–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cll.2007.05.001
McKinnon KM (2018) Flow cytometry: an overview. Curr Protoc Immunol 120:5.1.1–5.1.11. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpim.40
Bookout AL, Mangelsdorf DJ (2003) Quantitative real-time PCR protocol for analysis of nuclear receptor signaling pathways. Nucl Recept Signal 1:e012. https://doi.org/10.1621/nrs.01012
Buh Gasparic M, Cankar K, Zel J, Gruden K (2008) Comparison of different real-time PCR chemistries and their suitability for detection and quantification of genetically modified organisms. BMC Biotechnol 8:26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6750-8-26
Štampar M, Tomc J, Filipič M, Žegura B (2019) Development of in vitro 3D cell model from hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line and its application for genotoxicity testing. Arch Toxicol 93(11):3321–3333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-019-02576-6
Baebler Š, Svalina M, Petek M et al (2017) quantGenius: implementation of a decision support system for qPCR-based gene quantification. BMC Bioinformatics 18(1):276. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1688-7
Kovalchuk SI, Jensen ON, Rogowska-Wrzesinska A (2019) FlashPack: fast and simple preparation of ultrahigh-performance capillary columns for LC-MS. Mol Cell Proteomics 18(2):383–390. https://doi.org/10.1074/mcp.TIR118.000953
Wiśniewski JR, Zougman A, Nagaraj N, Mann M (2009) Universal sample preparation method for proteome analysis. Nat Methods 6(5):359–362. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1322
Wang WQ, Jensen ON, Møller IM, Hebelstrup KH, Rogowska-Wrzesinska A (2015) Evaluation of sample preparation methods for mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis of barley leaves. Plant Methods 14:72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-018-0341-4
Højrup P (2015) Analysis of peptides and conjugates by amino acid analysis. Methods Mol Biol 1348:65–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2999-3_8
Lydic TA, Goo YH (2018) Lipidomics unveils the complexity of the lipidome in metabolic diseases. Clin Transl Med 7(1):4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40169-018-0182-9
Matyash V, Liebisch G, Kurzchalia TV et al (2008) Lipid extraction by methyl-tert-butyl ether for high-throughput lipidomics. J Lipid Res 49(5):1137–1146. https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.D700041-JLR200
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Sino Danish Research and Education Center for PhD project for HSF and JMVN, Slovenian Research Agency [research core funding J1-2465, and grant to young researchers MR-MStampar P1-0245], and COST Actions CA16119 (In vitro 3-D total cell guidance and fitness).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC , part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Frandsen, H.S., Štampar, M., Vej-Nielsen, J.M., Žegura, B., Rogowska-Wrzesinska, A. (2021). Method to Disassemble Spheroids into Core and Rim for Downstream Applications Such as Flow Cytometry, Comet Assay, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Lipidomics. In: Brevini, T.A., Fazeli, A., Turksen, K. (eds) Next Generation Culture Platforms for Reliable In Vitro Models . Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2273. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1246-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1246-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1245-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1246-0
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols