Title Information
Title
Into the depths: Techniques for in vitro three-dimensional microtissue visualization.
Abstract
Three-dimensional (3-D) in vitro platforms have been shown to closely recapitulate human physiology when compared with conventional two-dimensional (2-D) in vitro or in vivo animal model systems. This confers a substantial advantage in evaluating disease mechanisms, pharmaceutical drug discovery, and toxicity testing. Despite the benefits of 3-D cell culture, limitations in visualization and imaging of 3-D microtissues present significant challenges. Here we optimized histology and microscopy techniques to overcome the constraints of 3-D imaging. For morphological assessment of 3-D microtissues of several cell types, different time points, and different sizes, a two-step glycol methacrylate embedding protocol for evaluating 3-D microtissues produced using agarose hydrogels improved resolution of nuclear and cellular histopathology characteristic of cell death and proliferation. Additional immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and in situ immunostaining techniques were successfully adapted to these microtissues and enhanced by optical clearing. Utilizing the Clear(T2) protocol greatly increased fluorescence signal intensity, imaging depth, and clarity, allowing for more complete confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging of these 3-D microtissues compared with uncleared samples. The refined techniques presented here address the key challenges associated with 3-D imaging, providing new and alternative methods in evaluating disease pathogenesis, delineating toxicity pathways, and enhancing the versatility of 3-D in vitro testing systems in pharmacological and toxicological applications.
Name
Name Part
Kabadi, Pranita K.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Vantangoli, Marguerite M.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Rodd, April L.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Leary, Elizabeth
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Madnick , Samantha J.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Kane, Agnes
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Boekelheide, Kim
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Origin Information
Date Created
2015
Subject (Local)
Topic
microtissues
Subject (Local)
Topic
3-D in vitro testing systems
Subject (Local)
Topic
3-D microtissues
Subject (Local)
Topic
histology
Subject (Local)
Topic
microscopy
Subject (Local)
Topic
toxicology
Type of Resource
text
Genre
research article
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Note: funding
This research is supported by NIEHS Training Grant T32 ES007272, the NIEHS Superfund Research Program P42 ES013660, BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative through the Consortium for Molecular Engineering of Dispersant Systems (CMEDS), and the generous gift of Donna McGraw Weiss ‘89 and Jason Weiss.