Summary
Owing to their in vivo-like characteristics, three-dimensional (3 D) multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) cultures are gaining increasing popularity as an in vitro model of tumors. A straightforward and simple approach to the cultivation of these MCTS is the hanging-drop method. Cells are suspended in droplets of medium, where they develop into coherent 3 D aggregates and are readily accessed for analysis. In addition to being simple, the method eliminates surface interactions with an underlying substratum (e.g., polystyrene plastic or agarose), requires only a low number of starting cells, and is highly reproducible. This method has also been applied to the co-cultivation of mixed cell populations, including the co-cultivation of endothelial cells and tumor cells as a model of early tumor angiogenesis.
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Timmins, N.E., Nielsen, L.K. (2007). Generation of Multicellular Tumor Spheroids by the Hanging-Drop Method. In: Hauser, H., Fussenegger, M. (eds) Tissue Engineering. Methods in Molecular Medicine™, vol 140. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-443-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-443-8_8
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-756-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-443-8
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