Summary
Published in Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods (2011), this peer-reviewed study used 3D Petri Dish® micro-molds to form scaffold-free 3D microtissues. Full citation: Achilli, Toni-Marie, et al. Quantification of the Kinetics and Extent of Self-Sorting in Three Dimensional Spheroids
Quantification of the Kinetics and Extent of Self-Sorting in Three Dimensional Spheroids
Research Overview
Cells self-sorting into distinct compartments within 3D microtissues underpins developmental biology, cancer metastasis, and tissue engineering — yet despite study since the 1950s, little quantitative data described the dynamics.
This study developed an assay to quantify the extent and kinetics of 3D self-sorting. Normal human fibroblasts and H35 hepatocytes were fluorescently labeled red and green respectively and seeded onto micro-molded nonadhesive hydrogels. The cells self-assembled into spheroids and sorted with fibroblasts forming the central core and hepatocytes the outer shell, tracked over a time course to yield quantitative sorting kinetics.
Key Discoveries
- Assay quantifies both the extent and kinetics of cell self-sorting in 3D microtissues
- Fibroblasts formed the central core with hepatocytes as the outer shell
- Fluorescent labeling and time-course imaging provided data absent since self-sorting's 1950s discovery
