3‐Dimensional Tissue Is Formed From Cancer Cells In Vitro on Gelfoam®, But Not on MatrigelTM. Issue 8 (August 2014) - Tome, Yasunori
ABSTRACT Cell and tissue culture can be performed on different substrates such as on plastic, in Matrigel™, and on Gelfoam®, a sponge matrix. Each of these substrates consists of a very different surface, ranging from hard and inflexible, a gel, and a sponge‐matrix, respectively. Folkman and Moscona found that cell shape was tightly coupled to DNA synthesis and cell growth. Therefore, the flexibility of a substrate is important for cells to maintain their optimal shape. Human osteosarcoma cells, stably expressing a fusion protein of αv integrin and green fluorescent protein (GFP), grew as a simple monolayer without any structure formation on the surface of a plastic dish. When the osteosarcoma cells were cultured within Matrigel™, the cancer cells formed colonies but no other structures. When the cancer cells were seeded on Gelfoam®, the cells formed three‐dimensional tissue‐like structures. The behavior of 143B osteosarcoma cells on Gelfoam® in culture is remarkably different from those of these cells in monolayer culture or in Matrigel™. Tissue‐like structures were observed only in Gelfoam® culture. The data in this report suggest a flexible structural substrate such as Gelfoam® provides a more in vivo‐like culture condition than monolayer culture or MatrigelTM and that MatrigelTM does not result in actual three‐dimensional culture. J. Cell. Biochem. 115: 1362–1367, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.