Patient-Derived Explant Cultures of Normal and Tumor Human Breast Tissue

Abstract

Tissue culture has evolved considerably over the last few years, including cell culture in three dimensions, organoids, cocultures of different cell types and the use of diverse types of matrices in an attempt to mimic conditions that more closely resemble those found in the original tissue or organ. In this chapter, we describe how patient-derived breast tissue can be cultured on sponges for several days, maintaining their original architecture and with the capacity to respond to treatments. This protocol facilitates the study of the tissue responses without the need for extensive tissue manipulation, cell digestion or use of a biomaterial as scaffold, while maintaining the stroma and extracellular matrix organization. This method has the potential to improve preclinical testing by contributing to provide more accurate data reflecting cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions, tumor microenvironment, drug effects or stem cell function in normal- and pathophysiology of the breast.