title: Differences in growth properties of endometrial cancer in three dimensional (3D) culture and 2D cell monolayer.
abstract: Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models have an invaluable role in understanding the behaviour of tumour cells in a well defined microenvironment. This is because some aspects of tumour characteristics cannot be fully recapitulated in a cell monolayer (2D). In the present study, we compared growth patterns, expression of signalling molecules, and metabolism-associated proteins of endometrial cancer cell lines in 3D and 2D cell cultures. Cancer cells formed spherical structures in 3D reconstituted basement membrane (3D rBM), and the morphological appearance was cell line dependent. Cell differentiation was observed after 8 days in the 3D rBM. There was reduced proliferation, detected by less expression of PCNA in 3D rBM than in 2D cell monolayers. The addition of exogenous epidermal growth factor (EGF) to cancer cells induced phosphorylation of EGFR and Akt in both cell culture conditions. The uptake of glucose was selectively altered in the 3D rBM, but there was a lack of association with Glut-1 expression. The secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) was selectively altered in 3D rBM, and it was cell line dependent. Our data demonstrated that 3D rBM as an in vitro model can influence proliferation and metabolism of endometrial cancer cell behaviour compared to 2D cell monolayer. Changes are specific to individual cell types. The use of 3D rBM is, therefore, important in the in vitro study of targeted anticancer therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. kenny.chitcholtan@otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: Kenny
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chitcholtan
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Asselin
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parent
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Sykes
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*