Cellular differentiation in three-dimensional lung cell cultures

3D tissue-like assemblies: A novel approach to investigate virus–cell interactions

“…Numerous publications confirm the similarity of structural organization and biomarker expression on the surface of the TLAs with their in vivo counterparts [21–25]. For example, we selected both DNA (VZV) and RNA (RSV, PIV3 and SARS-CoV) viruses to infect neuronal or respiratory TLAs, respectively, that were shown by transcript and protein analysis to reflect their physiological counterparts [26–29].…”

“…Primary cells and stable cell lines were used to establish various 3D tissues as shown in Table 1 [15, 17, 21, 22, 27]. Human lung TLAs were established using primary human bronchio-tracheal cells (HBTCs) 18 (Cambrex BioWittaker, San Diego, CA) and BEAS-2B cells, an SV-40 transformed human bronchial epithelial cell line from ATCC 19 (Rockville, Md).…”

Development of a three-dimensional model of lung cancer using cultured transformed lung cells

“…Additionally, we were able to document by electron microscopy the presence of lipid bodies, microvilli and tight junctions in the 3-D cultures not seen in monolayer preparations. 5 …”

“…At the molecular level, cultured cells grown in the traditional manner differ widely in their expression of differentiated markers, adhesion receptors and growth factor receptors compared to cells in situ. 5 Organ cultures, while informative and a step closer, still lack the reliability necessary to predict clinical correlates. 6 Current animal models of lung cancer consist mainly of models of animal cancer or as a host for human cancers, again with unreliable clinical correlations.…”

Enhanced penetration of lipid functionalized nanoparticles in 3D cell cultures.

“…For example, scientists were able to determine that transformed lung cells grown in 3D conditions displayed cellular markers more closely resembled to the animal model compared to the traditional monolayer cell cultures. This study also indicated that cellular differentiation of 3D cell cultures were more closely related to animal model as compared to monolayer cell cultures [32,33]. Experiments with 3D cell cultures have helped to analyze the effect of physical barriers on optimal drug delivery in comparison to monolayer studies [34][35][36], e.g., the impact of the extracellular matrix was studied by Goodman et al who demonstrated an increased penetration of nanoparticles treated with collagenase in 3D cell cultures [36].…”