A new method for the study of biophysical and morphological parameters in 3D cell cultures: Evaluation in LoVo spheroids treated with crizotinib

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 8;16(6):e0252907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252907. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) culture systems like tumor spheroids represent useful in vitro models for drug screening and more broadly for cancer biology research, but the generation of uniform populations of spheroids remains challenging. The possibility to properly characterize spheroid properties would increase the reliability of these models. To address this issue different analysis were combined: i) a new device and relative analytical method for the accurate, simultaneous, and rapid measurement of mass density, weight, and size of spheroids, ii) confocal imaging, and iii) protein quantification, in a clinically relevant 3D model. The LoVo colon cancer cell line forming spheroids, treated with crizotinib (CZB) an ATP-competitive small-molecule inhibitor of the receptor tyrosine kinases, was employed to study and assess the correlation between biophysical and morphological parameters in both live and fixed cells. The new fluidic-based measurements allowed a robust phenotypical characterization of the spheroids structure, offering insights on the spheroids bulk and an accurate measurement of the tumor density. This analysis helps overcome the technical limits of the imaging that hardly penetrates the thickness of 3D structures. Accordingly, we were able to document that CZB treatment has an impact on mass density, which represents a key marker characterizing cancer cell treatment. Spheroid culture is the ultimate technology in drug discovery and the adoption of such precise measurement of the tumor characteristics can represent a key step forward for the accurate testing of treatment's potential in 3D in vitro models.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Cell Culture Techniques / methods*
  • Cell Survival
  • Colonic Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Colonic Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Colonic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Crizotinib / pharmacology*
  • Humans
  • Spheroids, Cellular / drug effects
  • Spheroids, Cellular / metabolism
  • Spheroids, Cellular / pathology*
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Crizotinib

Grants and funding

This work has been partially supported by grants by the Ministry of Economic Development-AGRIFOOD PON I&C 204-2020“Development of a technological platform for the functional testing of nutraceutical molecules". Project Nr F/200110/01-03/X45-CUP B61B19000580008 to Cell Dynamics iSRL. The funder provided support in the form of part of salaries for authors AS, FM, SB, SP and DG, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.