3D TUMOR SPHEROIDS

Up to now, although widely recognized as being more predictive than cancer cells in monolayer culture, tumor spheroids have been barely used in cancer drug discovery, mainly due to the lack of high-content screening strategies applicable at a reasonable throughput. Based on a robust and scalable 3D cell culture system, Porsolt has developed two complementary approaches to quantify the effects of anti-cancer drugs at the single-cell level in large series of tumor spheroids.

In vitro tumor spheroids recapitulate in vivo features observed in solid tumors, such as cell-cell interactions, cell polarity, anchorage-independent growth, hypoxia and metabolic gradients. Starting from your need, we can generate single-cell type and multi-cell type 3D spheroids mimicking specific tumor tissues:

• Monotypic 3D cell cultures based on human tumor cell lines
• Heterotypic 3D cell cultures, combining cancer cells with normal stromal, epithelial and endothelial cells

Porsolt has developed a unique high-content screening strategy allowing the quantification of drug response in single spheroids at the single cell level and at high-throughput:

> Fast spheroid growth: spheroid formation within 2-3 days in 96-well plates

> High-throughput single-cell analysis of  individual 3D tumor spheroids

> Functional assays: cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell death

Porsolt applies high-content histology technologies to 3D tumor microtissues to characterize the efficacy and mechanism of action of anticancer compounds:

> Spheroid tissue microarray (SMA) format: Over 30 tumor spheroids on a single histologic slide for fast turnaround.

> Automated and multiplexed imaging of tumor microtissues with subcellular resolution

> Quantitative biomarker analysis in tumor spheroids (expression and subcellular distribution)