3D Co-culture Models

Cell cultures have played a significant role in the academy and pharmaceutical industry, but conventional 2D cultures fail to provide physiological relevance and communication network as compared to in vivo conditions, since they are unable to mimic the complexity of cellular microenvironment, an essential part for the cell behavior and systematic investigation. Using 2D cell culture systems can limit the predictive power of the cellular interactions. However, the 3D in vitro cultures provide a bridge between the conventional 2D cultures and in vivo studies. It was shown that in vitro 3D cultures recapture physiological cell-cell and cell-environment interactions (i.e., cellular morphology, cell differentiation, proliferation and gene expressions) with a greater relevant to animal and human studies, thus effectively facilitating the research progresses.

3D co-culture cell models now serve as important tools for solving scientific questions, which can be developed in different formats, depending on research goals and downstream usage. Co-culture cell models can emulate a variety of pathological conditions such as different stages of tumor invasion and metastasis, and identify of stromal components associated with pathological process.