We have developed a 3D cellular microarray platform for the high-throughput analysis of growth, cytotoxicity, and protein expression profile of a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2, in alginate, and compared these results to 2D and 3D environments at the microwell plate scale. The antiproliferative effects of four drugs, tamoxifen, 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and amitriptyline, were studied as a function of seeding density in the three culture platforms. The chemosensitivity of HepG2 cells to 5-fluorouracil and doxorubicin decreased substantially with increasing cell number in all surfaces/matrices, but little change in the IC50 values was observed between the different culture platforms when normalizing to the seeding density. Additionally, we developed a chip-based in-cell immunofluorescence assay that provided quantitative data of the levels of specific target proteins involved in proliferation, cell-cycle regulation, adhesion, angiogenesis, and drug metabolism, and compared the expression profiles to analogous results in 2D environments.

High-throughput HepG2-based microarrays for studying 3D cell culture

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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