细胞三维培养：组织工程的关键技术突破口

组织工程是有望从根本上解决组织,器官缺损或失能的医学难题的一门新兴边缘学科,组织,器官发育的细胞和分子机制的进一步揭示和体外构建工程组织,器官的细胞培养技术的进步将使组织工程在新的千年成为广泛应用的新的治疗模式。细胞三维培养要成为体外构建工程组织,器官的成熟技术体系需先解决以下问题;（1）细胞;（2）生物材料;（3）培养基;（4）培养装置;（5）异型细胞的共培养;（6）细胞三维培养物血管化。     

Modelling the formation of necrotic regions in avascular tumours

The mechanisms underlying the formation of necrotic regions within avascular tumours are not well understood. In this paper, we examine the relative roles of nutrient deprivation and of cell death, from both the proliferating phase of the cell cycle via apoptosis and from the quiescent phase via necrosis, in changing the structure within multicellular tumour spheroids and particularly the accumulation of dead cell material in the centre. A mathematical model is presented and studied that accounts for nutrient diffusion, changes in cell cycling rates, the two different routes to cell death as well as active motion of cells and passive motion of the dead cell material. In studying the accumulation of dead cell matter we do not distinguish between the route by which each was formed. The resulting mathematical model is examined for a number of scenarios. Results show that in many cases the size of the necrotic core is closely correlated with low levels in nutrient concentration. However, in certain cases, particularly where the rate of necrosis is large, the resulting necrotic core can lead to regions of non-negligible nutrient concentration-dependent upon the mode of cell death.     

模拟微重力条件下心肌细胞的体外三维固定化培养

观察心肌细胞体外培养形成三维(3D)组织结构的能力和过程及心肌细胞在模拟微重力状态下的3D固定化培养效果。应用酶消化法从新生的乳鼠心室肌组织获取心肌细胞,以Cytodex3为心肌细胞的3D固定化培养载体,将心肌细胞固定化培养于Spinnerflask中,用扫描电镜观察心肌细胞体外培养形成的3D组织结构;以心肌细胞的代谢效率和细胞搏动强度为观察指标,比较心肌细胞在Spinnerflask及HARV(highaspectratevessel)生物反应器中3D固定化培养的差异。结果显示,心肌细胞不仅能贴附于Cytodex3上生长,且形成了具有同步自律收缩的3D组织样结构;心肌细胞在两种不同培养体系中的细胞接种效率和细胞形态没有明显差异,培养于HARV中的心肌细胞的代谢效率和细胞搏动强度均明显高于Spinnerflask培养体系。体外培养的乳鼠心肌细胞具有形成同步自律收缩的3D组织结构的能力;模拟微重力的培养环境有利于改善心肌细胞3D组织样培养物的代谢和功能 。     

Penetration of anti-melanoma immunotoxin into multicellular tumor spheroids and cell kill effects

Summary In order to gain a better understanding of the interaction between immunotoxins and tumor cells at the level of three-dimensional tumor mass, we evaluated the cell kill effects of monoclonal antimelanoma-antibody/ricin-A-chain immunotoxin (ITN) on melanoma cells in multicellular tumor spheroids (MTS) as well as the penetration of ITN into MTS. For Minor melanoma cells in monolayer the ITN exerted cytotoxic effects after as little as 1 h of exposure. Increasing exposure time resulted in progressive increases in cytotoxic activity. In contrast, the cell kill effects of ITN were markedly delayed and reduced when Minor cells were in MTS. The ITN cytotoxic effects on the melanoma MTS were more than 100 fold less than those in monolayer. Patterns of ITN-induced cytotoxicities for Minor and for another melanoma cell line, DND-1A, were comparable. The native ricin A was more active against PC-10 squamous lung cancer cells than Minor cells, whereas the ITN was more cytotoxic against Minor cells than PC-10 cells, thus exhibiting selectivity. An autoradiographic study revealed time-dependent penetration of radiolabeled ITN from the surface of Minor MTS into the core. Incubation for 1 h resulted in the penetration of ITN into only the two or three outer layers of the Minor MTS, and low grain counts. Prolonged exposure resulted in inhomogeneous penetration of ITN into almost the entire melanoma MTS. Penetration of ITN into PC-10 MTS was extremely poor. The reduced cytotoxicity of ITN on melanoma cells in MTS as compared to cells grown in monolayer appears to correlate with its inhomogeneous distribution in the MTS. The delayed cytotoxicity of ITN is also consistent with its slow penetration into the core of the MTS.     

斑马鱼在抗肿瘤血管生成研究中的应用

近年来,斑马鱼作为一种新的模式生物,在胚胎的分子发育机制、疾病模型的构建以及药物筛选等研究中受到了广泛重视。随着先进的基因诱导技术和共聚焦显微观察技术的发展,斑马鱼已经在抗肿瘤血管生成药物研究中得到广泛应用。就斑马鱼在抗肿瘤血管生成药物筛选及其在肿瘤血管生成机制方面研究的应用作一综述。     

Three-dimensional perfused cell culture

Compelling evidence suggests the limitation and shortcomings of the current and well established cell culture method using multi-well plates, flasks and Petri dishes. These are particularly important when cell functions are sensitive to the local microenvironment, cell–cell and cell–extracellular matrix interactions. There is a clear need for advanced cell culture systems which mimic in vivo and more physiological conditions. This review summarises and analyses recent progress in three dimensional (3D) cell culture with perfusion as the next generation cell culture tools, while excluding engineered tissue culture where three dimensional scaffold has to be used for structural support and perfusion for overcoming mass transfer control. Apart from research activities in academic community, product development in industry is also included in this review.     

Electrical behavior and pore accumulation in a multicellular model for conventional and supra-electroporation

Extremely large but very short (20 kV/cm, 300 ns) electric field pulses were reported recently to non-thermally destroy melanoma tumors. The stated mechanism for field penetration into cells is pulse characteristic times faster than charge redistribution (displacement currents). Here we use a multicellular model with irregularly shaped, closely spaced cells to show that instead overwhelming pore creation (supra-electroporation) is dominant, with field penetration due to pores (ionic conduction currents) during most of the pulse. Moreover, the model's maximum membrane potential (about 1.2 V) is consistent with recent experimental observations on isolated cells. We also use the model to show that conventional electroporation resulting from 100 microsecond, 1 kV/cm pulses yields a spatially heterogeneous electroporation distribution. In contrast, the melanoma-destroying pulses cause nearly homogeneous electroporation of cells and their nuclear membranes. Electropores can persist for times much longer than the pulses, and are likely to be an important mechanism contributing to cell death.     

细胞打印技术及应用

细胞打印技术是一种在体外构造具有生物活性的三维多细胞体系的先进技术。近年来,有关细胞打印技术的研究引起广泛的关注,其原因在于该领域具有明显的学科交叉与渗透融合的特点,它处于生命科学与快速成型技术、生物制造技术、生物科学和材料科学的交汇点。更加值得关注的是它为组织工程学突破二维研究的局限性,在三维尺度上精确控制与人体组织或器官相似的三维构造体方面的研究提供了一种新的思路。基于这一技术不仅在三维组织工程,还对细胞生物学、高通量药物筛选及细胞传感器等方面的前沿问题均有广阔的研究应用前景,介绍了近年来开发用于细胞打印的技术及其潜在的应用。     

中空纤维测定法在抗肿瘤药物研究中的应用

中空纤维测定法是NCI建立的体内抗肿瘤药物筛选方法。本文介绍了中空纤维测定法的基本实验方法和疗效评判标准,回顾了近年基于中空纤维测定法的抗肿瘤药物方面的研究成果,认为中空纤维测定法不仅适用于药物筛选,在快速研究抗肿瘤药物药效和机制方面也具有重要的应用价值。     

内部结构可控的大体积三维细胞支架制备研究

目的：研究一种可以控制三维细胞支架内部孔隙结构的实验技术,用于制备孔隙结构可控的三维细胞支架,以满足组织工程对支架孔隙结构的要求。方法：均匀混合粘结剂与致孔剂,在离心力作用下去除混合物中多余的粘结剂,应用溶剂浇注/颗粒沥析方法制备三维细胞支架。结果：致孔剂粘结块的结构非常均匀,粘结程度可以通过实验条件控制。例如,直径为100~220μm的致孔剂,在离心力为161g,粘结剂浓度分别为20％和40％时,颗粒间粘结程度分别为33.78±556 (134)μm和42.89±5.87 (132) μm。并且,利用该技术制备的三维多孔支架,其内部孔隙大小取决于致孔剂颗粒大小,孔隙间的通道直径取决于致孔剂的粘结程度,即离心粘结与溶剂浇注/颗粒沥析技术相结合,能够方便地控制三维支架的孔隙结构。例如,当粘结程度为33.78±556 (134) μm时,支架的通道直径为33.34±5.21(12)μm,两者之间无显著差异。 结论：利用离心粘结与溶剂浇注/颗粒沥析技术结合,获得了孔隙呈球形、孔隙间完全连通的、结构均匀的大体积三维细胞支架,并且支架的孔隙以及孔隙间通道大小均可以实现人为控制。     

组织器官三维构建及原位组织工程概念——组织工程连载之四

组织器官三维构建就是把种子细胞和支架材料结合而获得设计的组织或器官,属于组织工程的核心内容,也最能体现组织工程的技术水平,如血管、气管的构建。由于传统组织工程存在缺陷,Shimizu于1998年首先提出了原位组织工程的概念,它是运用组织工程学基本原理,通过各种方法诱导移植的外源性的种子细胞或内源性的缺损组织局部细胞发生迁移、增殖、分化形成新生组织修复缺损。原位组织工程最大的特点是不依赖体外的细胞培养装置--生物反应器。原位组织工程是传统离体组织工程的有益补充。离体组织工程仍具有广阔的发展前景。     

High-throughput 3-D cell-based proliferation and cytotoxicity assays for drug screening and bioprocess development

We have designed, built and tested a three-dimensional (3-D) cell culture system on modified microplates for high-throughput, real-time, proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. In this 3-D culture system, cells expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) were cultured in nonwoven polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibrous scaffolds. Compared to 2-D cultures in conventional microplates, 3-D cultures gave more than 10-fold higher fluorescence signals with significantly increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), thus extending the application of conventional fluorescence microplate readers for online monitoring of culture fluorescence. The 3-D system was successfully used to demonstrate the effects of fetal bovine serum, fibronectin coating of PET fibers, and cytotoxicity of dexamethasone on recombinant murine embryonic stem D3 cells. The dosage effects of 5-fluorouracil and gemcitabine on high-density colon cancer HT-29 cells were also tested. These studies demonstrated that the 3-D culture microplate system with EGFP expressing cells can be used as a high-throughput system in drug discovery and bioprocess development.     

Spheroids of granulosa cells provide an in vitro model for programmed cell death coupled to steroidogenesis

We describe the use of rotary cultures (72 rpm) as an excellent method for generating spheroids from dispersed bovine granulosa cells (GC). The GC spheroids were symmetrical (diameter between 100 and 200 μm), easily accessible, and could be obtained at high yields. On day one, the spheroids showed a two-layered outer zone of cells that stained lighter than the inner zone in semi-thin sections. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) uptake was frequent and randomly distributed. By day two, a striking decrease in BrdU uptake was noted. Apoptotic bodies appeared up to day four, as did TUNEL and propidium iodide labelled dead cells. At that time, the inner zone contained cells with large-sized vacuoles and the core was amorphous. The large-sized vacuoles were identified at the ultrastructural level and represented autophagosomes and autophagolysosomes that were in different stages of development. Surprisingly, conspicuous signs of cell death were accompanied by an increase in spontaneous luteinization compared to conventional stationary cultures. We detected high levels of progesterone (immunoassay) accompanied by high levels of the proteins and enzymes relevant for steroidogenesis (StAR, P450scc, 3β-HSD by immunoblot and immunohistochemistry, respectively).     

动物细胞培养用生物反应器及相关技术

动物细胞大量培养是生产生物制品的重要途径,它用到的关键设备是生物反应器。根据培养细胞、培养载体、培养液混合方式的不同,生物反应器主要有搅拌式、气升式、中空纤维式、回转式等,其中搅拌式规模最大。回转式是NASA于20世纪90年代中期开发的一种新型生物反应器,被誉为空间生物反应器,可用于组织工程研究。与生物反应器配套的技术主要有灌注、微载体、多孔微球、转入抗凋亡基因等,可以有效地提高细胞密度,增加生物制品产量,提高质量。今后生物反应器研制主要朝两个方向发展:一是,以高密度培养动物细胞生产蛋白质药物为目的,二是以三维培养动物细胞(主要是人类细胞)再生组织或器官为目的。     

肿瘤类器官在药物筛选和个性化用药中的研究进展*

恶性肿瘤是影响人类生命健康的重大疾病之一,药物治疗是常见的治疗手段。近年来,“精准治疗”已经成为肿瘤治疗的趋势。要实现对恶性肿瘤有效、精准的药物治疗,药物筛选模型至关重要。肿瘤类器官是近年来新兴的一种三维细胞模型,具有经长期传代还保留亲本肿瘤的特征和异质性、培养成功率高、周期短和能够高通量筛选药物等优点,已被用于药物筛选、预测患者对治疗的反应以及为个性化用药提供指导等。重点介绍了肿瘤类器官在药物筛选及个性化用药中的研究进展和面临的挑战。