Characterization of a Novel Hydrogel Matrix for 3D Cell Culture and Co-culture Systems

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems are increasingly used in the study of cell biology due to their ability to recapitulate the extracellular matrix environment by providing physiologically relevant chemical groups, scaffolding, nutrient diffusion, elasticity, and pH. Biomaterials such as hydrogels have been successfully engineered and commercialized by several groups for the study of spheroids and organoids in vitro. We have evaluated a novel synthesized hydrogel to characterize the development of several cell types and co-cultures into 3D spheroids. We tested several characteristics of these spheroid cultures relative to commercial hydrogel or matrigel cultures, including cell viability, spheroid size, abundance, and the expression of adhesion proteins and proliferation markers. We found that spheroids grow more rapidly and to a larger size in our hydrogel matrix relative to commercial products. Currently, we are evaluating gene expression and chromatin accessibility profiles of cells grown in this hydrogel to determine changes relative to standard culture methods. Use of our hydrogel provides a way to rapidly grow tumor cells to large spheroids, and future work will involve co-culture of multiple cell types and organoid generation for research in tumor biology.