Brown scientists take the petri dish to new dimensions

A team of Brown University biomedical engineers has invented a 3-D Petri dish that can grow cells in three dimensions, a method that promises to quickly and cheaply produce more realistic cells for drug development and tissue transplantation.

The technique employs a new dish – cleverly crafted from a sugary substance long used in science laboratories – that allows cells to self-assemble naturally and form “microtissues.” A description of how the 3-D dish works appears in the journal Tissue Engineering.

“It’s a new technology with a lot of promise to improve biomedical research,” said Jeffrey Morgan, a Brown professor of medical science and engineering.

Morgan conceived and created the 3-D Petri dish with a team of Brown students led by Anthony Napolitano, a Ph.D. candidate in the biomedical engineering program. Napolitano spent two years perfecting the new dish and recently won a $15,000 award from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance to develop the patent-pending technology into a commercially viable product.

“This technology is an inexpensive and easy-to-use alternative to current 3-D cell culture methods,” Napolitano said. “It’s the next generation.”

The technology tackles a topic of increasing interest to scientists: creating hothouse cells that look and behave more like cells grown in the human body. Since 1877, scientists have relied on the Petri dish to grow, or culture, cells. The cells stick to the bottom of the dishes and spread out as they multiply. In the body, however, cells don’t grow that way. They are surrounded by other cells in three dimensions, forming tissues such as skin, muscle, and bone. This is what happens in Morgan’s 3-D dish.

The clear, rubbery dish is the size of a silver dollar. It is made from a water-based gel made of agarose, a complex carbohydrate long used in molecular biology. This gel has a few benefits. It is porous, allowing nutrients and waste to circulate. And it is non-adhesive, so cells won’t stick to it. At the bottom of the dish sit 820 tiny recesses or wells. When cells are added to the dish –about 1 million at a time – roughly 1,000 sink to the bottom of each well and form a pile. These close quarters allow cells to self-assemble, or form natural cell-to-cell connections, a process not possible in traditional Petri dishes.

The result: microtissues consisting of hundreds of cells, even of different types. In Tissue Engineering, the Brown team describes how they combined human fibroblasts, which make connective tissue, and endothelial cells, which line the heart and blood vessels. The cells came together to form spheres and doughnut-shaped clusters. The process was quick – self-assembly took place in less than 24 hours.

“These microtissues have several potential uses,” Morgan said. “They can be used to test new cancer compounds and other drugs. And they can be transplanted into the body to regenerate tissue, such as pancreatic cells for diabetics. While there are other methods out there for making microtissues, our 3-D technology is fast, easy and inexpensive. It can make hundreds of thousands of microtissues in a single step.”

Differences in culture techniques matter in biomedicine, according to a growing body of research. Studies show sometimes dramatic differences in the shape, function and growth patterns of cells cultured in 2-D compared with cells cultured in 3-D. For example, a recent Brown study found that nerve cells grown in 3-D environments grew faster, had a more realistic shape and deployed hundreds of different genes compared to cells grown in 2-D environments.

That’s why several laboratories are pursuing 3-D cell culture methods. Brown Technology Partnerships has filed a patent application based on the technology developed in the Morgan lab and is actively pursuing licensing partners.

Source: Brown University

Related stories:

Stem cells may look malignant, not act it
Call it the cellular equivalent of big glasses, a funny nose and a fake mustache. Bone marrow stem cells attracted to the site of a cancerous growth frequently take on the outward appearance of the malignant cells around them, University of Florida researchers report in a paper to be published in the August issue of Stem Cells.
Cancer biologists identify major player in cell growth
When cells go about the business of dividing, they can get sidelined. Maybe there aren't enough nutrients. Maybe there aren't the right signals to resume multiplying. Either way, cells go quiet.
Cells that Avoid Suicide May Become Cancerous
(PhysOrg.com) -- When a cell's chromosomes lose their ends, the cell usually kills itself to stem the genetic damage. But University of Utah biologists discovered how those cells can evade suicide and start down the path to cancer.
Embryo implantation offers insight into infertility
(PhysOrg.com) -- A process that governs embryo implantation in the womb in humans has been identified for the first time. The Oxford University research, published in the journal PNAS, could shed light on what goes wrong when embryos fail to implant in the lining of the womb, a leading cause of infertility.
New leukemia signal could point way to better treatment
Cancer researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a promising new chemotherapy target for a deadly form of leukemia. Their discovery hinges on a novel "double agent" role for a molecular signal that regulates cell growth.
Capturing replication strategies used by SARS viruses in their bid to spread
Just over five years ago, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus killed over 750 people. SARS (corona)virus, a positive-stranded RNA virus, replicates in the cytoplasm of host cells, attaching its replication complex to intracellular membranes that it has modified for this purpose.
DNA 'tattoos' link adult, daughter stem cells in planarians
Unlike some parents, adult stem cells don't seem to mind when their daughters get a tattoo. In fact, they're willing to pass them along. Using the molecular equivalent of a tattoo on DNA that adult stem cells (ASC) pass to their "daughter" cells in combination with gene expression profiles, University of Utah researchers have identified two early steps in adult stem cell differentiation—the process that determines whether cells will form muscle, neurons, skin, etc., in people and animals.
Updated guidelines for stem cell research released
The National Academies today released amended guidelines for research involving human embryonic stem cells, revising those that were issued in 2005 and updated in 2007. The Academies originally produced the guidelines to offer a common set of ethical standards for the responsible conduct of research using human stem cells, an area that, due to an absence of comprehensive federal funding, was lacking national standards. Since their initial release, the guidelines have served effectively as the basis for oversight of this research in the United States. In addition, a standing advisory committee -- a joint project between the Academies' National Research Council and Institute of Medicine -- was established to monitor and review scientific advances and determine any need for revisions.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news