The protocol describes how to engineer a perfusable vascular network in a spheroid. The spheroid’s surrounding microenvironment is devised to induce angiogenesis and connect the spheroid to the microchannels in a microfluidic device. The method allows the perfusion of the spheroid, which is a long-awaited technique in three-dimensional cultures.
A spheroid (a multicellular aggregate) is regarded as a good model of living tissues in the human body. Despite the significant advancement in the spheroid cultures, a perfusable vascular network in the spheroids remains a critical challenge for long-term culture required to maintain and develop their functions, such as protein expressions and morphogenesis. The protocol presents a novel method to integrate a perfusable vascular network within the spheroid in a microfluidic device. To induce a perfusable vascular network in the spheroid, angiogenic sprouts connected to microchannels were guided to the spheroid by utilizing angiogenic factors from human lung fibroblasts cultured in the spheroid. The angiogenic sprouts reached the spheroid, merged with the endothelial cells co-cultured in the spheroid, and formed a continuous vascular network. The vascular network could perfuse the interior of the spheroid without any leakage. The constructed vascular network may be further used as a route for supply of nutrients and removal of waste products, mimicking blood circulation in vivo. The method provides a new platform in spheroid culture toward better recapitulation of living tissues.
Shifting from a monolayer (two-dimensional) culture to a three-dimensional culture is motivated by the need to work with culture models that mimic the cellular functions of living tissues1,2,3. Flat and hard plastic substrates commonly used in cell culture do not resemble most of the extracellular environments in the human body. In fact, many studies demonstrate that three-dimensional culture recreate tissue-specific architecture, mechanical and biochemical cues, and cell-cell communication, which have not been observed in conventional two-dimensional culture4,5,6,7,8.
A multicellular aggregate or spheroid, is one of the most promising techniques to realize this three-dimensional culture9,10. Cells secrete the extracellular matrix (ECM) and can interact with others in the spheroid. Although some other bioengineering approaches11,12,13,14, such as cell stacking, successfully replicate spatial complexity of the human body, these approaches have only two or three kinds of cells for the ease of analysis and focused on only one function of target organs. In contrast, cells in spheroids are exposed to different culture environments depending on their positions in the spheroid due to the heterogeneous supply of nutrients, oxygen, and paracrine and autocrine signaling molecules in the spheroid. This feature of spheroids partially mimics in vivo culture condition and enable the cells in spheroids to create much more complex, organized tissue structure in vitro than those cultured in stacking tissue9,15,16. Note that if a spheroid is comprised of a single kind of cells, the function of the cells in the spheroid is not uniform due to the heterogeneous environment in the spheroid. In the past few years, spheroid cultures allowed embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or tissue-resident stem cells to mimic in vivo developmental sequences and recreate mini-organs such as the brain17, liver18and kidney19,20.
Despite significant progress in spheroid culture techniques, culturing large spheroids for a long time is still problematic. In a three-dimensional tissue, cells need to be located within 150-200 µm of a blood vessel because of the limited supply of oxygen and nutrients21. Vascular networks within the spheroid are necessary to recapitulate exchanging substances between blood and tissues in vivo. To achieve this, other groups have co-cultured endothelial cells with target cells22,23,24 or induced the differentiation of pluripotent cells into CD31-positive cells20. Nevertheless, the reported vessel-like structures do not have the open ends of the lumina to supply oxygen and nutrients to the center of the spheroid. To mimic the vascular role to nourish cells in the three-dimensional culture, open-ended and perfusable vascular network must be developed in the spheroid.
During the past few years, some research groups in the microengineering field reported methods to construct a perfusable vascular network, spontaneously formed in a microfluidic device by utilizing angiogenic factors from cocultured fibroblast cells25,26. These vascular networks have a similar morphology to their in vivo counterparts and can be remodeled by environmental factors, making them suitable for mimicking vascular functions in a spheroid culture. The purpose of this protocol is to construct a perfusable vascular network in a spheroid using a microfluidic platform27. The microfluidic device is modified from the previously reported device25 so that a spheroid can be incorporated. By directing the angiogenic secretion from fibroblast cells in a spheroid to endothelial cells in microchannels, angiogenic sprouts from the microchannels anastomosed with the spheroid and formed a perfusable vascular network. This method allows a direct delivery of a wide range of substances, such as fluorescent molecules and micrometer-scale beads into the interior of a spheroid, which provides the framework for a long-term tissue culture with vascular networks.
1. Fabrication of the Microfluidic Device Mold
2. Fabrication Steps and the Assembly of PDMS Layers
3. Spheroid Preparation
NOTE: In the study, red fluorescent protein expressing human umbilical vein endothelial cells (RFP-HUVECs) and green fluorescent protein expressing HUVECs (GFP-HUVECs) are used in the spheroid and microchannels, respectively, to distinguish the origin of HUVECs after the construction of a perfusable vascular network. If the origin of HUVECs is not needed, unlabeled HUVECs are enough for the experiment.
4. Cell Seeding in the Microfluidic Device
Note: The naming convention for the holes, channels and the spheroid well are demonstrated in Figure 1. We define day 0 as the day when cell harvesting into the microfluidic device is finished. Schematic of the experimental timelines is shown in Figure 2.
5. Nuclei Staining
6. Fluid Perfusion of a Spheroid
7. Quantification of Sprout Length
NOTE: ImageJ ver. 1.49 software is used for all of analysis of the image in this study.
8. Quantification of Vascular Angles
NOTE: Vascular angle was defined as the angle consisted by vascular angle, root and the center of the spheroid (Figure 7c).
Figure 1 shows a design and photo of the microfluidic device. It has three parallel channels, in which channel 2 contains the spheroid well. Channels 1 and 3 are used for the HUVEC culture and channel 2 is for the spheroid. Each channel is separated by trapezoidal microposts designed to pattern PDMS. The microposts prevent the hydrogel in channel 2 from leaking into channels 1 and 3 by surface tension and allow exchanging substances between the spheroid and HUVECs in microchannels28.
Figure 7a shows the center of a microfluidic device after cell seeding. Bright field and fluorescent images taken on day 0 show that fibrin gel filled only channel 2 without any leakage into channels 1 and 3, and HUVECs successfully attached to the sidewall of the fibrin gel. The bright field image is in focus on the both the loaded spheroid and microposts, indicating that the spheroid properly settled at the bottom of the device. The angiogenic sprouts are observed on day 1 and the length of the sprouts increases with time (Figure 7b). On day 3, the longest sprout reached the spheroid and on day 7, most of the angiogenic sprouts reached the spheroid (average distance from the channels 1 and 3 to the spheroid < 500 µm). In the best case, after 4 days in device culture, flow through the vascular lumens can be observed. The vascular angle was defined as the directions of the vascular tip and the center of the spheroid from the vascular root. Figure 7c shows the quantified vascular angle during 7 days in the device culture. The vascular angles decreased in a time-dependent manner, indicating that the angiogenic sprouts migrated toward the spheroid.
Figure 8 indicates the section of the vascular network where RFP-HUVECs and GFP-HUVECs have merged. RFP-HUVECs and GFP-HUVECs coordinately formed a single vascular lumen as shown by arrow heads, which clearly indicate angiogenic sprouts from channels 1 and 3 anastomosed to RFP-HUVECs in the spheroid and formed a continuous vascular network. To confirm the perfusability of the vascular network, FITC-dextran was injected into channel 1. FITC-dextran in channel 1 flowed into the constructed vascular network and interior of the spheroid and finally reached to channel 3 (Figure 9). During the perfusion of FITC-dextran solution, there is no leakage from the vascular network into the extravascular space. It was previously shown that small molecules injected in the vascular lumen pass through the vascular wall and react with the cells in the extravascular regions. In addition, the permeability coefficient of the vascular network was shown to be close to that in vivo27. These results imply that the integrated vascular network could supply the nutrients to the spheroid and remove the waste product.
Figure 1: Design and a photograph of the microfluidic device. (a) Overview of the design of the microfluidic device. Gray area indicates three microfluidic channels separated by trapezoidal microposts. Channel 2 has a well for a spheroid culture. Right figure shows the enlarged view in the red rectangle in the left. (b) Photograph of the microfluidic device whose channels are filled with red ink. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Experimental time. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 3: Method to load a spheroid into the microfluidic device. (a) Making a drop of MS and media with a spheroid in two separate dishes. Then, transfer the spheroid into MS with thrombin. (b) Schematic sectional view of the device during the injection of the spheroid. Excess amount of gel flows out through the holes 2A and 2B. However, the spheroid stays at the bottom of the device due to the physical confinement. (c) Schematic of the devices when they are in an incubator. Wet Kimwipe was placed in a 100-mm dish and two 35-mm dishes with the device were put on the Kimwipe. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 4: The photographs of pipette tips cut for cell seeding to the device. The left white tip is for holes 1A, 1B, 3A and 3C and transferring spheroid to a drop of fibrin gel (steps 4.1.9, 4.1.13, 4.2.4 and 4.2.6). The middle yellow tip is for the collection of the spheroid from 96-well (step 4.1.7). The right white tip is for the spheroid well (step 4.1.11). The tips before cut are also shown in the photograph. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 5: Non-perfusable vasculature. Angiogenic sprouts from microchannels did not connect to the opening between microposts and lost the connection between the lumen and microchannels (black arrows). It is caused by the insufficient HUVECs seeded in channels 1 and 3. Red: RFP-HUVECs in the spheroid, green: GFP-HUVECs from microchannels. The cells were cultured in the device for 14 days. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 6: Definition of the vascular root, tip and the center of the spheroid. (a) The method to determine the position of the vascular root and tip to measure the sprout length. After aligning the time-lapse fluorescent images, the fluorescent image taken a few days after culturing in the device is subtracted by the image on day 0. We measured the length of the sprouts after the subtraction by ImageJ software. (b) Definition of the center of the spheroid. The fluorescent images of the RFP-HUVECs are binarized and measured at its centroid by ImageJ software. We define the centroid as the center of the spheroid. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 7: Formation of a vascular network in the microfluidic device. (a) Time-lapse images of a center of a microfluidic device after cell seeding. Red: RFP-HUVECs cultured in the spheroid, green: GFP-HUVECs harvested in channels 1 and 3. Quantitative analysis of the sprout length (b) and vascular angle (c) (n = 42 sprouts in 3 devices, the error bars indicate the standard errors (S.E.)). The sprout length was defined as the distance from the position of HUVECs on day 0 to the vascular tip (b, top). The angle (∠TRS) was defined by the vascular root (R), tip (T) and the center of the spheroid (S) (c, top). See Figure 6 for the definition of vascular root, tip and the center of the spheroid. These data were obtained using ImageJ software. The schematics explaining the definition of the sprout length and the vascular angle are modified from Nashimoto, Y. et al.27. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 8: Formation of vascular lumen by HUVECs from microchannels and the spheroid. (a) Fluorescent image of the overview of the sample after 14 days in device culture. Yellow rectangle indicates the x-y position of the optical section shown in (b). (b) x-y, y-z and x-z optical section of the constructed vascular network. White arrows indicate vascular lumen. Red: RFP-HUVECs cultured in the spheroid, green: GFP-HUVECs cultured in the microchannels, blue: Cellular nuclei. (a) shows no blue fluorescence because (a) is the image before the fixation. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 9: Perfusion of a spheroid using a constructed vascular network. Bright field (a) and fluorescent (b) images of the spheroid after 7 days in device culture. (c) Fluorescent image of the same spheroid after FITC-dextran (70 kDa) loading. Red: RFP-HUVECs in the spheroid and channels 1 and 3, Green: FITC-dextran, blue: Cellular nuclei. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Supplementary File 1: The design of the microfluidic device. The file is in dxf format. Please click here to download this file.
Previous reports show that hLFs secrete a cocktail of multiple angiogenic factors, such as angiopoietin-1, angiogenin, hepatocyte growth factor, transforming growth factor-α, tumor necrosis factor and some extracellular matrix proteins29,30. This assay relies on the angiogenic secretion from hLFs in a coculture spheroid, which is the limitation of the technique. Therefore, it is critical for a stable vascular formation to set a coculture spheroid at the bottom of a well so that the distance between the coculture spheroid and the HUVECs in channels 1 and 3 can be shortened. The vascular length from fibroblasts was inversely proportional to the distance between the endothelial cells and fibroblasts31, so that the shorter distance is advantageous for stable vascular formation. However, to open a spheroid hole (1 mm in diameter) without damaging channels 1 and 3, the minimum width of channel 2 was 1.5 mm.
Although the spheroid settles at the bottom of the well, vascular roots were occasionally disconnected from the microposts or microchannels (Figure 5). In this case, no reagent could reach the vascular lumen through microchannels (channels 1 or 3). Although we could not solve this problem completely, we presume that the problem is due to the insufficient number of HUVECs at the surface of the fibrin gel (step 4.2.1-4.2.6). Make sure the HUVECs stably attach the side wall of channel 2.
Toward the successful injection of a spheroid into the well, optimizing the inner and outer diameter of micropipette tips in step 4.1.7 is important: 1) the inner diameter should be larger than that of the spheroid. 2) The outer dimeter should fit to the edge of the well so that no leakage of the gel occurs at the top of the well during the injection and the tip can be easily removed after the gel injection. In the present protocol (φ1 mm of a spheroid well), around 700 µm is the maximum diameter for the injectable spheroid. If the well diameter is designed larger than that in this protocol, larger spheroids can be injected because the tip can be cut to have larger inner diameters. Spheroid diameters can be controlled easily by changing the cell number harvested in the 96-well plate.
This protocol firstly shows novel microfluidic platform to construct a perfusable vascular network in a spheroid. Although the coculture with HUVECs allows the formation of vessel-like structures in a spheroid18,23,24, these were not perfusable due to the dead ends of the lumina. Because fibroblast cells exist in versatile tissues (bone, adipocyte and cancer, etc.), by the addition of some other targeting cells to the coculture spheroid, a vascularization of a various kind of spheroids can be expected, which can mimic the in vivo environment better than the conventional spheroid culture. To expand the application of the technique, future work would include the vascularization of spheroids without the addition of fibroblast cells. Some recent works report bone-marrow stromal cells32 and muscle cells33 can induce angiogenesis in the microfluidic devices. Utilizing the stromal or muscle cells instead of the fibroblast cells would increase the number of tissues that can be vascularized in the microfluidic device. This protocol provides a basic platform for tissue vascularization, which is a long-awaited technique in the field of three dimensional cultures.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This work was supported by CREST JST (grant number JPMJCR14W4), Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (grant number 25600060, 16K16386), The Center of Innovation Program from MEXT and JST, Project Focused on Developing Key Evaluation Technology from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED, Mizuho Foundation for the Promotion of Sciences. Microfabrication was supported by Kyoto University Nano Technology Hub.
AutoCAD 2017 | Autodesk | AutoCAD 2017 | |
A chromium mask coated with AZP 1350. | CLEAN SURFACE TECHNOLOGY | CBL2506Bu-AZP | |
Micro pattern generator | Heidelberg | uPG101 | |
MF CD-26 developer | Rohm and haas electronic materials | – | Developer in protocol 1.4 |
S-Clean | Sasaki Chemical | S-24 | Chromium etchant in protocol 1.5 |
Aceton | Wako | 012-00343 | |
Silicon Wafer | Canosis | SiJ-4 | |
Spin Coater | MIKASA | 1H-D7 | |
Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) | Tokyo Ohka Kogyo | H0089 | |
SU-8 3050 | MicroChem | – | Negative photoresist in protocol 1.9 |
UV Exposure | Nanometric Technology Inc | LA310s | |
SU-8 Developer | MicroChem | Y020100 | Developer for the negative photoresist in protocol 1.13 |
2-propanol | Wako | 163-04841 | |
Surhace profiler | Vecco | Veeco Dektak XT-S | |
(Trichloro (1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyl) silane | Sigma | 448931 | |
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) | Dow Corning Toray | 184W/C | |
Biopsy Punch (1.0mm) | Kai Industries | BP-10F | |
Biopsy Punch (2.0mm) | Kai Industries | BP-20F | |
Plasma System | Femto Science | COVANCE | |
Cover glass | MATSUNAMI GLASS | C024241 | |
Culture Dishes | Iwaki | 1000-035 | |
RFP Expressing Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell | Angio Proteomie | cAP-0001RFP | |
Normal Human Lung Fibroblasts | Lonza | CC-2512 | |
Endothelial Cell Growth Medium | Lonza | CC-3162 | |
Fibroblast Growth Media Kits | Lonza | CC-3132 | |
DMEM | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 11965092 | |
Fetal Bovine Serum | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 26140079 | |
Penicillin-Streptomycin Solution | Wako | 168-23191 | |
0.05w/v% Trypsin-0.53mmol/l EDTA• 4Na Solution with Phenol Red | Wako | 204-16935 | |
PBS (Phosphate Buffered Salts) | Takara bio | T900 | |
96-well plate | Sumitomo bakelite | 631-21031 | |
1000ul Chip | NIPPON Genetics | FG-402 | |
200ul Chip | NIPPON Genetics | FG-301 | |
10ul Chip | NIPPON Genetics | 37650 | |
CO2 incubator | Thermo Fisher Scientific | Model 370 | |
GFP Expressing Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell | Angio Proteomie | cAP-0001GFP | |
Fibrinogen from bovine plasma | Sigma | F8630 | |
Aprotinin from bovine lung | Sigma | A6279 | |
Collagen I | Corning | 354236 | |
Thrombin from bovine plasma | Sigma | T4648 | |
Hoechst 33342 | Invitrogen | H21492 | Fluorescent dye to stain nuclei in protocol 5.5 |
Paraformaldehyde Solution | Wako | 163-25983 | |
Inverted Fluorescence Microscope | OLYMPUS | IX71 | |
Degital CCD Camera | OLYMPUS | ORCA-R2 | |
Confocal Laser Scanning Biological Microscope | OLYMPUS | FV1000 | |
Inverted Fluorescence Microscope | OLYMPUS | IX-83 | |
Fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran | Sigma | FD70S |