A 3D Spheroid Model for Glioblastoma

Two-dimensional cell cultures do not adequately mimic in vivo tumor growth. To improve, 3D procedures have been developed using spheroids. Our 3D glioblastoma spheroid-based assay is particularly well-suited to investigate brain tumor invasion into the healthy brain tumor environment.

Three-dimensional culture models can be used to recapitulate a multicellular architecture, heterogeneity and metabolic state of tumors allowing more rigorous evaluation of drug effects. Be sure not to touch the bottom of the well or to completely remove the supernatant, to keep the gel on ice, and to add the cells to the gel quickly. To generate uniformly sized tumor spheroids, first wash the tumor cell culture of interest with five milliliters of PBS and treat the cells with 0.5 to one milliliter of dissociation enzyme.