Menzies Health Institute Queensland , Griffith University , Southport , 4222 Queensland , Australia.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Mar 13;11(10):9814-9823. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b22036. Epub 2019 Feb 26.
Three-dimensional (3D) multicellular structures allow cells to behave and interact with each other in a manner that mimics the in vivo environment. In recent years, many 3D cell culture methods have been developed with the goal of producing the most in vivo-like structures possible. Whilst strongly preferable to conventional cell culture, these approaches are often poorly reproducible, time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive and require specialized equipment. Here, we describe a novel 3D culture platform, which we have termed the naked liquid marble (NLM). Cells are cultured in a liquid drop (the NLM) in superhydrophobic-coated plates, which causes the cells to naturally form 3D structures. Inside the NLMs, cells are free to interact with each other, forming multiple 3D spheroids that are uniform in size and shape in less than 24 h. We showed that this system is highly reproducible, suitable for cell coculture, compound screening, and also compatible with laboratory automation systems. The low cost of production, small volume of each NLM, and production via automated liquid handling make this 3D cell-culturing system particularly suitable for high-throughput screening assays such as drug testing as well as numerous other cell-based research applications.
三维（3D）多细胞结构允许细胞以模拟体内环境的方式相互作用和相互作用。近年来，已经开发了许多 3D 细胞培养方法，目的是产生最类似于体内的结构。虽然这些方法比传统的细胞培养方法更可取，但它们通常重复性差、耗时、昂贵且劳动强度大，并且需要专门的设备。在这里，我们描述了一种新颖的 3D 培养平台，我们称之为裸液滴（NLM）。细胞在超疏水涂层板中的液滴（NLM）中培养，这导致细胞自然形成 3D 结构。在 NLMs 内，细胞可以自由地相互作用，形成多个大小和形状均匀的 3D 球体，不到 24 小时即可形成。我们表明，该系统具有高度可重复性，适用于细胞共培养、化合物筛选，并且还与实验室自动化系统兼容。每个 NLM 的生产成本低、体积小，并且通过自动化液体处理进行生产，这使得这种 3D 细胞培养系统特别适合高通量筛选测定，如药物测试以及许多其他基于细胞的研究应用。
