Performance evaluation of 3D polystyrene 96-well plates with human neural stem cells in a calcium assay

In this study, we have generated a high-throughput screening (HTS)-compatible 3D cell culture platform by chemically "welding" polystyrene scaffolds into standard 2D polystyrene 96-well plates. The variability of scaffolds was minimized by introducing automation into the fabrication process. The fabricated 3D cell culture plates were compared with several commercially available 3D cell culture platforms with light and scanning electron microscopy. Voltage-gated calcium channel functionality was used to access the Z' factors of all plates, including a 2D standard plate control. It was found that with the No-Wash Fluo-4 calcium assay and neural progenitor cells, all plates display acceptable Z' factors for use in HTS. The plates with "welded" polystyrene scaffolds have several advantages, such as being versatile and economical, and are ready to use off the shelf. These characteristics are especially desired in HTS preclinical drug discovery applications.