Encapsulated human hepatocellular carcinoma cells by alginate gel beads as an in vitro metastasis model

Journal Article · Thu Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Experimental Cell Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.YEXCR.2013.05.013· OSTI ID:22274007

Xu, Xiao-xi; Liu, Chang ^[1]; Liu, Yang ^[1]; Li, Nan ^[1]; Guo, Xin ^[1]; Wang, Shu-jun ^[1]; Sun, Guang-wei ^[1]; Wang, Wei ^[1]; Ma, Xiao-jun ^[1]

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1. Laboratory of Biomedical Material Engineering, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (China)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and often forms metastases, which are the most important prognostic factors. For further elucidation of the mechanism underlying the progression and metastasis of HCC, a culture system mimicking the in vivo tumor microenvironment is needed. In this study, we investigated the metastatic ability of HCC cells cultured within alginate gel (ALG) beads. In the culture system, HCC cells formed spheroids by proliferation and maintained in nuclear abnormalities. The gene and protein expression of metastasis-related molecules was increased in ALG beads, compared with the traditional adhesion culture. Furthermore, several gene expression levels in ALG bead culture system were even closer to liver cancer tissues. More importantly, in vitro invasion assay showed that the invasion cells derived from ALG beads was 7.8-fold higher than adhesion cells. Our results indicated that the in vitro three-dimensional (3D) model based on ALG beads increased metastatic ability compared with adhesion culture, even partly mimicked the in vivo tumor tissues. Moreover, due to the controllable preparation conditions, steady characteristics and production at large-scale, the 3D ALG bead model would become an important tool used in the high-throughput screening of anti-metastasis drugs and the metastatic mechanism research. -- Highlights: •We established a 3D metastasis model mimicking the metastatic ability in vivo. •The invasion ability of cells derived from our model was increased significantly. •The model is easy to reproduce, convenient to handle, and amenable for large-scale.

• OSTI ID: 22274007
• Journal Information: Experimental Cell Research, Vol. 319, Issue 14; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0014-4827
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
BIOLOGICAL MODELS
CELL CULTURES
GELS
HEPATOMAS
IN VITRO
LIVER
METASTASES