3D Sponge-Matrix Histoculture

Yasunori Tome, Fuminari Uehara, Fuminori Kanaya, Robert M. Hoffman

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 proper gene expression. The flexibility of a substrate is important for cells to maintain their optimal shape. Human osteosarcoma cells, stably expressing a fusion protein of avintegrin, 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 3-dimensional tissue-like structures. These results indicate that Gelfoam®histoculture, unlike Matrigel™ culture, is true 3-dimensional.