Multicellular Spheroids
Multicellular Spheroids - Related Videos
11:24
Evaporation-reducing Culture Condition Increases the Reproducibility of Multicellular Spheroid Formation in Microtiter Plates
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Cited by 6 •
2017
The uneven loss of medium from microtiter plates affects the reproducibility of uniform multicellular tumor spheroid formation. Improving culture conditions to reduce significant medium loss will improve the reproducibility of spheroid formation and the results of spheroid-based assays using the liquid-overlay technique.
11:34
Modeling Ovarian Cancer Multicellular Spheroid Behavior in a Dynamic 3D Peritoneal Microdevice
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Cited by 29 •
2017
To study ovarian tumor progression in a physiologically relevant model, multicellular spheroids were cultured in a microdevice under simulated fluid flow. This dynamic 3D model emulates the intraperitoneal environment with the cellular and mechanical components where ovarian cancer metastasis occurs.
10:27
Lab-on-a-CD Platform for Generating Multicellular Three-dimensional Spheroids
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Cited by 2 •
2019
We present a motor-powered centrifugal microfluidic device that can cultivate cell spheroids. Using this device, spheroids of single or multiple cell types could be easily cocultured under high gravity conditions.
13:21
Affordable Oxygen Microscopy-Assisted Biofabrication of Multicellular Spheroids
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Cited by 11 •
2022
The protocol describes high-throughput spheroid generation for bioprinting using the multi-parametric analysis of their oxygenation and cell death on a standard fluorescence microscope. This approach can be applied to control the spheroids viability and perform standardization, which is important in modeling 3D tissue, tumor microenvironment, and successful (micro)tissue biofabrication.
06:07
Direct Bioprinting of 3D Multicellular Breast Spheroids onto Endothelial Networks
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Cited by 7 •
2020
The goal of this protocol is to directly bioprint breast epithelial cells as multicellular spheroids onto pre-formed endothelial networks to rapidly create 3D breast-endothelial co-culture models which can be used for drug screening studies.
FAQs
As cells adhere and proliferate within the cluster, oxygen, nutrients, and metabolites become distributed unevenly across its diameter. Outer cells remain closer to the culture environment, while interior cells experience greater limitation. These spatial gradients create localized differences in cellular activity and help model conditions that are difficult to reproduce in flat cultures.
Different positions within a spheroid expose cells to different levels of oxygen and nutrients. Cells near the exterior can support active proliferation, whereas cells farther inward may become quiescent, meaning they are not actively dividing. More severe resource limitation can produce hypoxic or necrotic cores, creating organized cellular states within one model.
Spheroids preserve three-dimensional tissue organization and allow cells to interact across multiple spatial layers. This arrangement can reveal cell-cell interactions, extracellular matrix responses, and restricted drug penetration that conventional monolayers do not represent as well. Consequently, treatment responses observed in spheroids may reflect tumor architecture more closely than results from flat cultures alone.
Cells can form these structures by self-assembling or aggregating in culture. Cell-cell adhesion helps maintain the cluster, while continued proliferation contributes to its organization and growth. As the structure enlarges, internal gradients and distinct cellular regions emerge, allowing researchers to examine how organization changes the behavior of cancer cells.
They are particularly useful when researchers need to examine treatment responses under conditions that include limited drug penetration and spatially varied cell states. Testing within the cluster can reveal differences between outer and inner regions, helping evaluate therapeutic effectiveness and treatment resistance in a model that better reflects tumor organization.
These models support evaluation of tumor growth, invasion, treatment resistance, and therapeutic responses. They also provide a setting for studying how tumor architecture, cell-cell interactions, and extracellular matrix responses influence cancer behavior. Together, these outcomes can guide the development and refinement of anticancer strategies while adding three-dimensional context to experimental findings.