Abstract

3-Dimensional (3-D) cell culture is thought to improve
physiological responses to external stimulae e.g. compounds, and is being
increasingly adopted in drug discovery. However there are practical issues… •
Some, but not all cell lines can be grown as spheroids – some cells do not
adhere to each other and require additional extra cellular matrices • Once
formed, spheroids are impossible to manipulate and difficult to perform media
changes • Independent well-to-well culture conditions result in uneven cell
growth between wells making it very difficult to generate homogeneous spheroids
To address many of these practical issues, we have developed electrospun
scaffold material on to which we seed cells. Cells grow on and into the
scaffold material forming what we call a ‘micro-tissue’. Importantly,
electrospun magnetic scaffolds can be: • Physically manipulated with magnetism
to move micro-tissues between culture vessels and micro-well plates without
damaging the cells • Manufactured to contain fluorescence dyes for imaging or
the color used as a barcode to distinguish normal versus abnormal tissue in the
same well • Cells can be transfected while on scaffolds • Cells can be
cryo-preserved while on scaffolds • iPSC’s can be differentiated while on
scaffolds • Material can be manufactured into shapes and sheets for simplified
cell culture • Can be used for co-culture - one cell type acts as a foundation
on to which another cell types grows • Cultures can be grown and maintained in
the same vessel and separated at the point of treatment, thereby generating
micro-tissue homogeneity Here we demonstrate the innovative utility of
electrospun material for generating micro-tissues for drug discovery purposes.