Laboratory of Biomedical Technologies, Division of Health Protection Technologies, Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile (ENEA), 00123 Rome, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 25;24(13):10620. doi: 10.3390/ijms241310620.
Cancer is intrinsically complex, comprising both heterogeneous cellular composition and extracellular matrix. In vitro cancer research models have been widely used in the past to model and study cancer. Although two-dimensional (2D) cell culture models have traditionally been used for cancer research, they have many limitations, such as the disturbance of interactions between cellular and extracellular environments and changes in cell morphology, polarity, division mechanism, differentiation and cell motion. Moreover, 2D cell models are usually monotypic. This implies that 2D tumor models are ineffective at accurately recapitulating complex aspects of tumor cell growth, as well as their radiation responses. Over the past decade there has been significant uptake of three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models by cancer researchers, highlighting a complementary model for studies of radiation effects on tumors, especially in conjunction with chemotherapy. The introduction of 3D cell culture approaches aims to model in vivo tissue interactions with radiation by positioning itself halfway between 2D cell and animal models, and thus opening up new possibilities in the study of radiation response mechanisms of healthy and tumor tissues.
癌症本质上很复杂，包含异质细胞组成和细胞外基质。过去，体外癌症研究模型被广泛用于癌症建模和研究。尽管二维 (2D) 细胞培养模型在癌症研究中一直被广泛使用，但它们存在许多局限性，例如细胞与细胞外环境之间相互作用的干扰以及细胞形态、极性、分裂机制、分化和细胞运动的变化。此外，2D 细胞模型通常是单型的。这意味着 2D 肿瘤模型不能有效地准确再现肿瘤细胞生长的复杂方面及其对辐射的反应。在过去的十年中，癌症研究人员已经广泛采用了三维 (3D) 体外模型，突出了一种互补的肿瘤辐射效应研究模型，特别是与化疗联合使用。引入 3D 细胞培养方法旨在通过将自身定位在 2D 细胞和动物模型之间的中间位置，模拟体内组织与辐射的相互作用，从而为健康组织和肿瘤组织的辐射反应机制研究开辟新的可能性。
