Recapitulation of human 3D colorectal cancer model using smart thermo-responsive hydrogel for monitoring angiogenesis
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Unicellular and multicellular spheroids are innovative culture platforms to recapitulate the in vivo microenvironment for various pathological conditions, such as tumor models and therapeutic research. Despite their advantages in biomedical fields, the lack of integrity and compactness is the main challenge in a prolonged culture system. This study aimed to develop and scale up high-throughput, long-term, and stable cancer spheroids with certain hydrogel composites using the hanging drop approach. METHODS: To better mimic tumor spheroid formation and enhance HT-29 cell cohesion, a novel hydrogel-based matrix composed of methylcellulose (MC) was fabricated. To this end, MC was modified using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (3-APTES) and cross-linked with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and gelatin (GEL). HT-29 cells were encapsulated inside MC, modified methyl cellulose (MMC), MMC/PEG, MMC/GEL, and MMC/PEG/GEL hydrogels. General features of hydrogels were characterized using FTIR, NMR, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, DLS, FE-SEM, EDS, and rheology. The survival rate, angiogenesis capacity, compactness, circularity, and Wnt signaling pathway activity were also monitored over time. RESULTS: Data indicated appropriate physicochemical properties of MC-based spheroids, especially in the MMC/PEG/GEL group. The incorporation of different substrates into the final composite was also confirmed. MTT assay indicated enhanced HT-29 cell viability inside spheroids composed of MMC/PEG/GEL…
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.