Multicellular spheroids are an established system for three-dimensional cell culture. Spheroids are typically generated using hanging drop or non-adherent culture; however, an emerging technique is to use magnetic levitation. Herein, mesenchymal stem cell spheroids were generated using magnetic nanoparticles and subsequently cultured within a type I collagen gel, with a view towards developing ...

The in vitro cytotoxicities of the four drugs most frequently used for intravesical chemotherapy (Adriamycin, epodyl, mitomycin C, Thiotepa) and epirubicin were compared using monolayers and multicellular tumor spheroids of the human bladder cancer cell line, MGH-U1. Adriamycin and epirubicin were most cytotoxic against monolayer cultures, whereas mitomycin C killed more cells in spheroids. Epo...

A new technique, based on the growth of tumor cells in liquid media over an agar base, has been developed for the formation and growth of multicellular tumor spheroids. All of the 11 transformed cell lines tested formed multicellular tumor spheroids, while none of the 8 normal cell types tested did so. The advantages of the present technique over older methods include its simplicity, generality...

A critical step in the dissemination of ovarian cancer is the formation of multicellular spheroids from cells shed from the primary tumour. The objectives of this study were to apply bioengineered three-dimensional (3D) microenvironments for culturing ovarian cancer spheroids in vitro and simultaneously to build on a mathematical model describing the growth of multicellular spheroids in these b...

The in vitro growth of small (0.05 to 3 mm diameter) avascular multicellular tumor spheroids from six rodent and two human tumor lines has been analyzed. Surprisingly, the radial increase of multicellular tumor spheroids is linear with time after a brief initial period of geometric growth. These multicellular tumor spheroids are shown to have a constant thickness of proliferative outer crust an...

Three-dimensional multicellular spheroids (MCSs) have a complex architectural structure, dynamic cell-cell/cell-matrix interactions and bio-mimicking in vivo microenvironment. As a fundamental building block for tissue reconstruction, MCSs have emerged as a powerful tool to narrow down the gap between the in vitro and in vivo model. In this review paper, we discussed the structure and biology o...