Overview
The high incidence of drug failures in clinical trials is due in part to non-representative screening assays for compound testing. It is widely acknowledged that 3D cell culture models have greater physiological relevance than commonly used 2D cell cultures. 3D advanced cell models more closely mimic the in vivo microenvironment through inclusion of matrices with tissue-relevant stiffnesses and biofunctionalities, which enable cells to exhibit more native phenotypes. There is a growing need for scalable workflows to generate and analyze these more complex 3D cell models to facilitate compound testing in preclinical settings, including live-cell imaging readouts to monitor and interrogate the effects of drugs in real time.
This application note demonstrates that matrix stiffness influences MCF-7 cell growth and that MCF-7 cells respond to treatment with cytotoxic compounds within RASTRUM matrices. The combination of RASTRUM and Incucyte provides a simple but powerful workflow for generating and analyzing 3D advanced cancer cell models over time.
Highlights
In this application note, you'll learn about:
- Explore the effect of matrix stiffness on cancer cell growth using 3D advanced cell models generated by RASTRUM™.
- Monitor the growth of cancer cells after compound treatment in real time and observe the kinetics of drug action using the Incucyte Live-Cell Imaging and Analysis System.
- Utilize a simple workflow that streamlines the generation and analysis of 3D advanced cancer cell models for compound testing.