What are the benefits of 3D cell culture?
Emerging evidence showed that 3D cell culture systems in vitro would offer the following advantages 1. Facilitate the understanding of structure–function relationship in normal and pathological tissue conditions. Studies have shown that human annulus disc cells cultured in 3 dimensional gel systems showed different morphology than those cultured in 2D. These cells cultured in 3D showed increased proteoglycan synthesis compared to monolayer grown cells, and formation of multi-celled colonies with extracellular matrix deposited around and between cells. Furthermore, the human annulus disc cells cultured in 3 dimensional showed the evidence of Type I and II collagen production which was not found in mono-layer cell culture. In vitro animal cell growth in 3D promotes normal epithelial polarity and differentiation. Cells move and divide more quickly and have a characteristically asymmetric shape compared with that of cells in living tissue. 2. 3D cell culture is a better model for studying