scholarly journals Single cell organization and cell cycle characterization of DNA stained multicellular tumor spheroids

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Olofsson ◽  
Valentina Carannante ◽  
Madoka Takai ◽  
Björn Önfelt ◽  
Martin Wiklund

AbstractMulticellular tumor spheroids (MCTSs) can serve as in vitro models for solid tumors and have become widely used in basic cancer research and drug screening applications. The major challenges when studying MCTSs by optical microscopy are imaging and analysis due to light scattering within the 3-dimensional structure. Herein, we used an ultrasound-based MCTS culture platform, where A498 renal carcinoma MCTSs were cultured, DAPI stained, optically cleared and imaged, to connect nuclear segmentation to biological information at the single cell level. We show that DNA-content analysis can be used to classify the cell cycle state as a function of position within the MCTSs. We also used nuclear volumetric characterization to show that cells were more densely organized and perpendicularly aligned to the MCTS radius in MCTSs cultured for 96 h compared to 24 h. The method presented herein can in principle be used with any stochiometric DNA staining protocol and nuclear segmentation strategy. Since it is based on a single counter stain a large part of the fluorescence spectrum is free for other probes, allowing measurements that correlate cell cycle state and nuclear organization with e.g., protein expression or drug distribution within MCTSs.

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-268
Author(s):  
Suchit Khanna ◽  
Ankit Chauhan ◽  
Anant Narayan Bhatt ◽  
Bilikere Srinivasa Rao Dwarakanath

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 585-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Markvicheva ◽  
Lina Bezdetnaya ◽  
Artur Bartkowiak ◽  
Annie Marc ◽  
Jean-Louis Gorgen ◽  
...  

Presently multicellular tumor spheroids (MTS) are being widely used in various aspects of tumor biology, including studies in biology and photodynamic therapy. The cellular organization of spheroids allows the recreation of in vivo small tumors much better than all common two-dimensional in vitro models. The cell encapsulation method could be proposed as a novel technique to quickly and easily prepare a large number of spheroids with narrow size distribution within a desirable diameter range. Moreover, the proposed technique for spheroid generation using encapsulated growing tumor cells could provide entirely new avenues to develop a novel spheroid co-culture model (for instance, the in vitro co-cultvation of tumor cells and monocytes, or epithelial cells, or fibroblasts etc). The current research was aimed at developing a simple and reliable method to encapsulate tumor cells and to cultivate them in vitro. In order to generate spheroids, MCF-7 cells were encapsulated and cultivated in 200 ml T-flasks in a 5% CO2 atmosphere at 37?C for 4-5 weeks. The cell proliferation was easily observed using a light microscope. The cells grew in aggregates increasing in size with time. The cell growth resulted in the formation of large cell clusters (spheroids) which filled the whole microcapsule volume in 4-5 weeks.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1119-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjoern Rodday ◽  
Franziska Hirschhaeuser ◽  
Stefan Walenta ◽  
Wolfgang Mueller-Klieser

Multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) are routinely employed as three-dimensional in vitro models to study tumor biology. Cultivation of MCTS in spinner flasks provides better growing conditions, especially with regard to the availability of nutrients and oxygen, when compared with microtiter plates. The main endpoint of drug response experiments is spheroid size. It is common practice to analyze spheroid size manually with a microscope and an ocular micrometer. This requires removal of some spheroids from the flask, which entails major limitations such as loss of MCTS and the risk of contamination. With this new approach, the authors present an efficient and highly reproducible method to analyze the size of complete MCTS populations in culture containers with transparent, flat bottoms. MCTS sediments are digitally scanned and spheroid volumes are calculated by computerized image analysis. The equipment includes regular office hardware (personal computer, flatbed scanner) and software (Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, ImageJ). The accuracy and precision of the method were tested using industrial precision steel beads with known diameter. In summary, in comparison with other methods, this approach provides benefits in terms of semiautomation, noninvasiveness, and low costs.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riham Abouleisa ◽  
Qinghui Ou ◽  
Xian-liang Tang ◽  
Mitesh Solanki ◽  
Yiru Guo ◽  
...  

Rationale: The regenerative capacity of the heart to repair itself after myocardial infarction (MI)is limited. Our previous study showed that ectopic introduction of Cdk1/CyclinB1 andCdk4/CyclinD1 complexes (4F) promotes cardiomyocyte proliferation in vitro and in vivo andimproves cardiac function after MI. However, its clinical application is limited due to the concernsfor tumorigenic potential in other organs. Objectives: To first, identify on a single cell transcriptomic basis the necessary reprogrammingsteps that cardiomyocytes need to undertake to progress through the proliferation processfollowing 4F overexpression, and then, to determine the pre-clinical efficacy of transient andcardiomyocyte specific expression of 4F in improving cardiac function after MI in small and largeanimals. Methods and Results: Temporal bulk and single cell RNAseq of mature hiPS-CMs treated with4F or LacZ control for 24, 48, or 72 h revealed full cell cycle reprogramming in 15% of thecardiomyocyte population which was associated with sarcomere disassembly and metabolicreprogramming. Transient overexpression of 4F specifically in cardiomyocytes was achievedusing non-integrating lentivirus (NIL) driven by TNNT2 (TNNT2-4F-NIL). One week after inductionof ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats or pigs, TNNT2-4F-NIL or control virus was injectedintramyocardially. Compared with controls, rats or pigs treated with TNNT2-4F-NIL showed a 20-30% significant improvement in ejection fraction and scar size four weeks after treatment, asassessed by echocardiography and histological analysis. Quantification of cardiomyocyteproliferation in pigs using a novel cytokinesis reporter showed that ~10% of the cardiomyocyteswithin the injection site were labelled as daughter cells following injection with TNNT2-4F-NILcompared with ~0.5% background labelling in control groups. Conclusions: We provide the first understanding of the process of forced cardiomyocyteproliferation and advanced the clinical applicability of this approach through minimization ofoncogenic potential of the cell cycle factors using a novel transient and cardiomyocyte-specificviral construct.


Methods ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 81-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja M. Piltti ◽  
Brian J. Cummings ◽  
Krystal Carta ◽  
Ayla Manughian-Peter ◽  
Colleen L. Worne ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 832-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijing Yao ◽  
Qian Zha ◽  
Xu Cheng ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
...  

In this study, soy protein isolate was hydrolyzed by compound enzymes to give aqueous soy protein with low molecular weights. Folic acid modified and free soy protein nanoparticles were successfully prepared by a desolvation method as target-specific drug delivery, respectively. Ultraviolet spectrophotometry demonstrated that folic acid was successfully grafted onto soy protein. The shape and size of folic acid modified soy protein nanoparticles were detected by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, and dynamic light scattering. In addition, a series of characteristics including kinetic stability, pH stability, and time stability were also performed. Doxorubicin was successfully loaded into folic acid modified soy protein nanoparticles, and the encapsulation and loading efficiencies were 96.7% and 23%, respectively. Doxorubicin-loaded folic acid modified soy protein nanoparticles exhibited faster drug release rate than soy protein nanoparticles in PBS solution (pH = 5). The tumor penetration and antitumor experiments were done using three-dimensional multicellular tumor spheroids as the in vitro model. The results proved that folic acid modified soy protein nanoparticles display higher penetration and accumulation than soy protein nanoparticles, therefore possessing efficient growth inhibitory ability against multicellular tumor spheroids.


Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Hesh ◽  
Yongzhi Qiu ◽  
Wilbur A. Lam

The microvasculature is the primary conduit through which the human body transmits oxygen, nutrients, and other biological information to its peripheral tissues. It does this through bidirectional communication between the blood, consisting of plasma and non-adherent cells, and the microvascular endothelium. Current understanding of this blood–endothelium interface has been predominantly derived from a combination of reductionist two-dimensional in vitro models and biologically complex in vivo animal models, both of which recapitulate the human microvasculature to varying but limited degrees. In an effort to address these limitations, vascularized microfluidics have become a platform of increasing importance as a consequence of their ability to isolate biologically complex phenomena while also recapitulating biochemical and biophysical behaviors known to be important to the function of the blood–endothelium interface. In this review, we discuss the basic principles of vascularized microfluidic fabrication, the contribution this platform has made to our understanding of the blood–endothelium interface in both homeostasis and disease, the limitations and challenges of these vascularized microfluidics for studying this interface, and how these inform future directions.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. e0118906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Mischiati ◽  
Blendi Ura ◽  
Leda Roncoroni ◽  
Luca Elli ◽  
Carlo Cervellati ◽  
...  

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