ArticleAssay and drug development technologies2015
High-content assays for characterizing the viability and morphology of 3D cancer spheroid cultures.
Article in Assay and drug development technologies, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed.
- Anticancer Effects of Fluphenazine Alone and in Combination with Cisplatin in Gastric Cancer Cells and a Mouse Xenograft Model.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Three-dimensional spheroid models in breast cancer: tumor microenvironment complexity, cancer stem cell-driven resistance, and translational model integration.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Review
- Dynamic pillar-perfusion platform for screening enzyme-induced self-assembling peptide therapeutics in 3D breast cancer spheroids.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Article
- Organoids, organ-on-a-chip, and microtumors: Biomimetic 3D tumor models advancing drug development and precision medicine.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Review
- Force-sensing mobile microrobotic grippers for gentle and precise bioassembly of cell spheroids.APL bioengineering · 2026Article
- An overview of the developments in 3D cancer cell models, assay techniques, and imaging modalities.Human cell · 2026Review
- Role of atomic force microscopy in characterization of heterotypic cancer spheroids and their interaction with microplastic particles.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Non-invasive quantification of viability in liver spheroids using deep learning.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Cytotoxicity in vitro assay in 3D vs. 2D L929 cell cultures - comparative analysis of the response to the latex extracts.PloS one · 2026Article
- Three-Dimensional Tumor Spheroids of Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines for High-Throughput Screening of Drug Candidates.ACS omega · 2025Article
- SpheroidSync as edge cutting transfer strategy for uniform and robust MCF7 spheroids in 3D culture.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Phototoxicity of Half-Sandwich Rhodium(III) Complexes with Anthracene and Biphenyl Substituents toward Mammalian Cancer Cells and Multicellular Tumor Spheroids.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- The Marine Natural Compound Aplysinamisine I Selectively Induces Apoptosis and Exhibits Synergy with Taxol™ in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Spheroids.Marine drugs · 2025Article
- Review
- Real-time monitoring and quantitative analysis of 3D tumor spheroids using portable cellular imaging system.Biomedical engineering letters · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal analysis of ratiometric biosensors in live multicellular spheroids using SPoRTS.Cell reports methods · 2025Article
- New frontiers in anti-cancer drug testing: The need for a relevant In vitro testing model.NAM journal · 2025Review
- SARS-CoV-2 Activated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) Do Not Provoke Adverse Effects in Trophoblast Spheroids.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2025Article
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is an increasing interest in using three-dimensional (3D) spheroids for modeling cancer and tissue biology to accelerate translation research. Development of higher throughput assays to quantify phenotypic changes in spheroids is an active area of investigation. The goal of this study was to develop higher throughput high-content imaging and analysis methods to characterize phenotypic changes in human cancer spheroids in response to compound treatment. We optimized spheroid cell culture protocols using low adhesion U-bottom 96- and 384-well plates for three common cancer cell lines and improved the workflow with a one-step staining procedure that reduces assay time and minimizes variability. We streamlined imaging acquisition by using a maximum projection algorithm that combines cellular information from multiple slices through a 3D object into a single image, enabling efficient comparison of different spheroid phenotypes. A custom image analysis method was implemented to provide multiparametric characterization of single-cell and spheroid phenotypes. We report a number of readouts, including quantification of marker-specific cell numbers, measurement of cell viability and apoptosis, and characterization of spheroid size and shape. Assay performance was assessed using established anticancer cytostatic and cytotoxic drugs. We demonstrated concentration-response effects for different readouts and measured IC50 values, comparing 3D spheroid results to two-dimensional cell cultures. Finally, a library of 119 approved anticancer drugs was screened across a wide range of concentrations using HCT116 colon cancer spheroids. The proposed methods can increase performance and throughput of high-content assays for compound screening and evaluation of anticancer drugs with 3D cell models.
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