Why You Should Consider Culturing Your Cells in 3-D

2-D versus 3-D and meaningful outcomes

We have seen recent growth in our customers' demand for 3-D cell based assay solutions. This could be due to more the fact that these assays our proving to generate more in vivo like data.

Breast cancer cells, for example, grown in 2-D can easily be killed by low doses of chemotherapeutic drugs or low doses of radiation. If those same cells are grown in 3-D, they are resistant to the same doses of chemotherapeutic drugs or radiation, just like cancer as its found in the body. In this way, cells grown in 3D are more valid targets for testing and discovering new drugs to treat cancer. Another benefit of testing drugs in three dimensional cell culture versus two dimensional cell culture is that cells in 3D form multi-layers of cells whereas cells grown in 2-D form a monolayer of cells that is spread very thin on a plastic surface. When testing a drug in 2-D, it needs only to diffuse a short distance across the cell membrane to reach its intended target. In 3-D, the situation is more realistic and a drug needs to diffuse across multi-layers of cells to reach the cells on the inside of a microtissue.

Neuromics has a variety of options that will enable you to choose the best option(s) for your 3-D assays. These include:

• Collagel Hydrogels-New-Formulated using Type 1 Bovine, Human or Rat Collagen
• 3-D Nanofiber Solutions-Aligned Scaffolds, Randomly Oriented Scaffolds and Interactive Microenvironment System (IMEMS). 
• AlphaMAX3D-Potent three dimensional environment for cell culturing 
• AlphaGEL3D-Novel synthetic peptide hydrogel 
• Extracellular Matrix (ECM) Proteins-ECM proteins for cell culturing

Look for more posting on these important solutions.

3-D Screens Predict Breast Cancer Metastasis

Cell-ECM Interactions

3-D culturing solutions and methods are increasingly being used to created more in vivo like assays.

Here researchers use our Human Collagen IV extracellular matrix protein (ECM) to develop a simple biomaterial platform with systematic control over the ECM protein density and composition to determine if integrin binding governs how metastatic cells differentiate between secondary tissue sites: L.E. Barney, E.C. Dandley, L.E. Jansen, N.G. Reich, A.M. Mercurio, and S.R. Peyton. A cell–ECM screening method to predict breast cancer metastasis. Integr Biol (Camb). 2015 Feb 10; 7(2): 198–212. doi: 10.1039/c4ib00218k.

This publication details the creation of an in vitro fingerprint that is predictive of in vivo metastasis.

Figure: Biomaterial platform for integrin-mediated phenotyping. (a) Breast cancer cell lines with their known in vivo metastatic tropisms.  (b) Three distinct ECM microenvironments regulate integrin binding. (c) Adhesion and motility phenotypes of the MDA-MB-231 cell line. Black: ECM 1; blue: ECM 2; green: ECM 3.

Figure: Correlations between adhesion and migration responses identify potent integrin antibodies in vitro. Pairwise comparisons between adhesion and migration measurements in the (a, b) MDA-MB-231 and (c, d) SkBr3 cell lines across normal, EGF-stimulated, and integrin antibody conditions. Arrows highlight conditions where integrin antibodies increased migration metrics. Spearman correlations are indicated on each plot with two-tailed p-values. Circle: ECM 1; square: ECM 2; triangle: ECM 3; black: normal; green: EGF; blue: anti-β1 integrin; red: anti-α2 integrin; orange: anti-α6 integrin. (e, f) SkBr3 migration mechanisms are displayed via 10 random cell paths under (e) normal and (f) anti-β1 conditions. Red paths identify cells detaching and adhering elsewhere on the surface. Inset: representative images of cell morphology. Scale bar is 25 μm. (g) Individual cells that invaded into an overlaid 3D collagen gel from the ECM 1 surface after 48 hours. Bar indicates mean distance invaded of all invading cells. Inset: schematic of cells invading upward from the ECM surface into an overlaid gel.

A richer understanding of cancer metastasis is important for the development of new, more potent chemotherapies. I am hopeful 3-D/ECM assays become more embraced as a way to more accuratly determine in vivo cell behaviors.

Plasma netrin-1 is a diagnostic biomarker of human cancers

I am pleased to report broadening application for our Stem Cell Markers as a diagnostic for cancers. This publication references use of our Netrin-1 antibody.

Ganesan Ramesh, Arthur Berg, and Calpurnia Jayakumar. Plasma netrin-1 is a diagnostic biomarker of human cancers. Biomarkers. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 July 26. Published in final edited form as: Biomarkers. 2011 March; 16(2): 172–180. Published online 2011 February 8. doi: 10.3109/1354750X.2010.541564.
Objectives: To determine whether plasma netrin-1 can be used as a diagnostic biomarker of human cancer.

Materials and Methods: A total of 300 cancer plasma samples from breast, renal, prostate, liver, meningioma, pituitary adenoma, glioblastoma, lung, pancreatic and colon cancer patients were compared against 138 control plasma samples. Netrin-1 levels were quantified by ELISA and immunohistochemistry.

Results: Plasma netrin-1 levels were significantly increased in breast, renal, prostate, liver, meningioma, pituitary adenoma, and glioblastoma cancers as compared to control samples.

Discussion and Conclusion: Our results suggest that plasma netrin-1 can be used as a diagnostic biomarker for many human cancers.

Image: Immunohistochemical localization of netrin-1 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tissues. A. Secondary antibody control showing no staining. B. Normal adjacent tissues do not show any staining for netrin-1. C. Stage I RCC shows staining for netrin-1. D. Stage II RCC shows staining for netrin-1. E-F.


Netrin-1 Immunohistochemistry: Stage I–III renal cell carcinoma and normal tissue section (Tissue Array) was obtained from Biomax to immunolocalize netrin-1, as described previously (29). Briefly, tissue sections were dewaxed and rehydrated with graded ethanol (100%, 90%, 70% and 30%) and then washed with PBS. Antigen retrieval was carried out using citrate buffer and steamer. The tissue section was permeabilized with 0.2% Triton X-100 in PBS, and washed and blocked with PBS containing 5% donkey serum and 1% BSA. Primary antibodies included a chicken anti-netrin-1 polyclonal antibody (Neuromics cat # CH23002). Primary antibodies were detected using secondary antibodies conjugated with biotin, which was followed by incubation with streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase (Pierce). Slides were mounted in permount and photographed using an Olympus microscope attached to a CCD camera.
Potent diagnostic tools for cancers save lives. This is especially true of markers that can diagnose them in early stages. I will post these important studies as the cross my radar scope.

SOX2 and Initiation of Breast Tumors

I consider it a feather in Neuromics' cap when our reagent(s) are referenced in a Nature Journal. More importantly it enables me to keep the pulse on novel and important discovery.

This pub references use of one of our SOX2 Antibody and comes from Dr. Angel García Martín and his Team at INBIOMED: O Leis, A Eguiara, E Lopez-Arribillaga, M J Alberdi, S Hernandez-Garcia, K Elorriaga, A Pandiella, R Rezola and A G Martin. Sox2 expression in breast tumours and activation in breast cancer stem cells. Oncogene , (8 August 2011) | doi:10.1038/onc.2011.338.

The important insight from this study is: "Over-expression of Sox2 increased mammosphere formation, effect dependent on continuous Sox2 expression; furthermore, Sox2 knockdown prevented mammosphere formation and delayed tumour formation in xenograft tumour initiation models. Induction of Sox2 expression was achieved through activation of the distal enhancer of Sox2 promoter upon sphere formation, the same element that controls Sox2 transcription in pluripotent stem cells. These findings suggest that reactivation of Sox2 represents an early step in breast tumour initiation, explaining tumour heterogeneity by placing the tumour-initiating event in any cell along the axis of mammary differentiation."

Could these findings ultimately lead to a better diagnostic for Breast Cancer? I'll keep you posted.

Lab Highlights: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women making up to 20% of all tumours diagnosed in women, with 1 million new cases diagnosed every year worldwide (16,000 new cases only in Spain). Worlwide it causes over 350,000 deaths with an increasing tendency. Breast cancer stem cells show the phenotype CD44+/CD24low/-Lin- though only a fraction of this population has the capacity to initiate tumours. Therefore a complete and precise description of the breast cancer stem cells is lacking.

The focus of this laboratory is to identify, isolate and culture breast cancer stem cells from natural breast tumours and compare at the molecular level with normal mammary stem cells. This research involves the stablishment of both in vitro and in vivo functional assays and the molecular characterization (both genomic and proteomic) of breast cancer stem cells to define the mechanisms responsible for its transformed phenotype.

Cancer Reagents Pubs-Capabilities Update

We continue to grow our capaibilities and abilities to serve Cancer Researchers.

We recently highlighted the potency of our i-Fect ™ siRNA transfection kits for deliveriny siRNA to glioblastomas.

Joseph George, Naren L. Banik, Swapan K. Ray. Combination of hTERT Knockdown and IFN-γ Treatment Inhibited Angiogenesis and Tumor Progression in Glioblastoma. Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(23):7186–95

...with i-Fect transfection reagent (Neuromics) to obtain 5 μg DNA/10 μL of injection volume...

Here're several new publications highlighting use of our Cancer Research Antibodies:

Mauricio P. Pinto, Melanie M. Badtke, Michelle L. Dudevoir, J. Chuck Harrell, Britta M. Jacobsen and Kathryn B. Horwitz. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Secreted by Activated Stroma Enhances Angiogenesis and Hormone-Independent Growth of Estrogen Receptor–Positive Breast Cancer. Cancer Research 70, 2655, April 1, 2010. Published Online First March 23, 2010; doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-4373 © 2010 American Association for Cancer Research.

...Phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) was assayed by immunohistochemistry (rabbit polyclonal; Neuromics). Statistical analyses Data were analyzed with GraphPad software using either Student's t test or ANOVA followed by a Tukey's...

Nina Bergelin, Christoffer Löf, Sonja Balthasar, Veronica Kalhori, and Kid Törnquist. S1P1, and VEGFR-2 Form a Signaling Complex with Extracellularly Regulated Kinase 1/2 and Protein Kinase C-alpha Regulating ML-1 Thyroid Carcinoma Cell Migration. This version published online on May 25, 2010. Endocrinology, doi:10.1210/en.2009-1387

...conjugated goat antirabbit from Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, CA). Rearranged in transformation (RET) antibody was from Neuromics (Edina, MN). Secondary antibodies (Alexa Fluor goat antirabbit 568 and goat antimouse 488) for immunocytochemistry were obtained from MolecularProbes...

New Markers:

Ogg1, Biotinylated
Ogg1, HRP Conjugated
p95/NBS1
Pin-1

Image: HeLa cells stained with Pin-1 (1:1,000 dilution, green) and fibrillarin (red). Pin-1 stains the nuclear matrix and, much more faintly, the cytoplasm. The fibrillarin antibody marks nucleoli.