ReviewJournal of cell science2012
Deconstructing the third dimension: how 3D culture microenvironments alter cellular cues.
Review in Journal of cell science, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 896 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
896 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biomarker-guided responses in patient-derived organoids predict effective therapies in breast cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Trial
- 3D confinement physically regulates cell cycle progression in budding yeast.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Comparison of volumetric dynamic optical coherence tomography with biological methods for evaluation of radiation effects in prostate tumor spheroids.Journal of biomedical optics · 2026Article
- Beyond the dose: a clearance-enabled in vitro platform for evaluating local therapies.Drug delivery and translational research · 2026Article
- Beyond the Monolayer: Leveraging 3D Culture Systems to Decode Mechanisms of Drug Resistance and Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Colorectal Cancer.Cancer medicine · 2026Review
- Endothelial-Fibroblast Organoids Generated in Hydrogel Microchamber Arrays: A Translational Model of Vascular Dysfunction in Cardio-Kidney-Metabolic Disease.Journal of vascular research · 2026Article
- Article
- Dissecting residual disease in spheroids reveals pan-cancer persistence signatures and a therapeutic window for oncolytic viruses.Molecular therapy. Oncology · 2026Article
- Current Perspectives on 2D and 3D Cell Culture Models in Cancer Research: Molecular Determinants of Tumor Biology and Therapeutic Response.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- Construction of 3D bioprinted colorectal cancer models and evaluation of their efficacy and drug sensitivity.APL bioengineering · 2026Article
- Article
- Strain-Accelerated β-Thiolactone Native Chemical Ligation with Kinetic Control Enables Rapid and Selective Hydrogelation for Biofabrication.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- In Silico Evaluation of Mechanobiological Parameters Under Variable Flow in Three-Dimensional Microfluidic Platforms Supporting Future Cell Migration Studies.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Matrix stress relaxation drives glioblastoma cell response in viscoelastic biomaterials.Science advances · 2026Article
- Matrix degradation promotes fibronectin deposition and spatial remodeling in 3D.Cell reports. Physical science · 2026Article
- Hydrogels: current biomedical applications and future directions.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Coating materials enhance urochordate primary cell culture adherence.In vitro cellular & developmental biology. Animal · 2026Article
- Adaptation of Non-Invasive Cancer Cells to 3D Collagen I Microenvironment Induces Transcriptional Reprogramming Accompanied by a More Complex RNA Landscape.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Keratocyte Gene Expression Shaped by ECM Dimensionality: Evidence for Enhanced Quiescence in 3D Culture.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Tubulin autoregulation tunes microtubule dynamics to support multicellular architecture and viability.Nature communications · 2026Article
836 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Much of our understanding of the biological mechanisms that underlie cellular functions, such as migration, differentiation and force-sensing has been garnered from studying cells cultured on two-dimensional (2D) glass or plastic surfaces. However, more recently the cell biology field has come to appreciate the dissimilarity between these flat surfaces and the topographically complex, three-dimensional (3D) extracellular environments in which cells routinely operate in vivo. This has spurred substantial efforts towards the development of in vitro 3D biomimetic environments and has encouraged much cross-disciplinary work among biologists, material scientists and tissue engineers. As we move towards more-physiological culture systems for studying fundamental cellular processes, it is crucial to define exactly which factors are operative in 3D microenvironments. Thus, the focus of this Commentary will be on identifying and describing the fundamental features of 3D cell culture systems that influence cell structure, adhesion, mechanotransduction and signaling in response to soluble factors, which - in turn - regulate overall cellular function in ways that depart dramatically from traditional 2D culture formats. Additionally, we will describe experimental scenarios in which 3D culture is particularly relevant, highlight recent advances in materials engineering for studying cell biology, and discuss examples where studying cells in a 3D context provided insights that would not have been observed in traditional 2D systems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.