A team of scientists from Houston's Texas Medical Center has unveiled a new technique for growing 3-D cell cultures - research published in Nature Nanotechnology reports.
It uses magnetic forces to levitate cells while they divide and grow. Compared with cell cultures grown on flat surfaces, the 3-D cell cultures tend to form tissues that more closely resemble those inside the body.
For cancer research, the "invisible scaffold" created by the magnetic field goes beyond its potential for producing cell cultures that are more reminiscent of real tumors, which itself would be an important advance, said co-author Wadih Arap, professor in the David H. Koch Center at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
To make cells levitate, the research team modified a combination of gold nanoparticles and engineered bacterial viruses called phages. This targeted "nanoshuttle" can deliver payloads to specific organs or tissues.
The nanoparticles used in this case are tiny bits of iron oxide. These are added to a gel that contains phage. When cells are added to the gel, the phage causes the particles to be absorbed into cells over a few hours. The gel is then washed away, and the nanoparticle-loaded cells are placed in a petri dish filled with a liquid that promotes cell growth and division.
INITIAL RESEARCH
In one research, this technique was used on brain tumor cells called glioblastomas. The results showed that cells grown in the 3-D medium produced proteins that were similar to those produced by gliobastoma tumors in mice, while cells grown in 2-D did not show this similarity.
This beautiful method boasts natural cell-cell interactions to assemble 3-D microtissue structures.This is a step toward building better models of organs in the lab.
- courtesy Nano3D Biosciences
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