Short Guide to 3D Cell Culture

A new informative booklet entitled ‘Short Guide to 3D Cell Culture’ has been produced by AMSBIO. Drawing upon a wealth of experience of working with a wide range of 3D cell culture procedures and formats the guide is aimed at assisting research scientists looking to culture cells in more physiologically relevant environments.

Traditional monolayer cell culture on plastic dishes or in flasks, rarely recreates the conditions cells experience in vivo. Over the past 20 years, many researchers have actively sought ways to culture cells in 3D. The conclusion reached by many researchers is that there is no silver bullet, each cell type needs a different environment and many biological questions may need specific methods to study them.

The AMSBIO guide provides background information on what is 3D cell culture and why researchers are increasingly switching to it.  Many types of 3D cell culture matrices for spheroid, organotypic and directional cultures are described in addition to natural hydrogels, scaffold-free cell culturing, artificial scaffolds and synthetic biomimetics. An up-to-date summary details how 3D cell culture techniques are helping to advance cellular research in applications including viability and cytotoxicity, invasion and motility, cell signaling and communication as well as tissue regeneration and stem cell growth and differentiation. An easy-to-use table is included to guide researchers towards the optimal 3D cell culture matrix for different applications.