Receptor tyrosine kinase targeting in multicellular spheroids

While growing cells as a monolayer is the traditional method for cell culture, the incorporation of multicellular spheroids into experimental design is becoming increasingly popular. This is due to the understanding that cells grown as spheroids tend to replicate the in vivo situation more reliably than monolayer cells. Thus, the use of multicellular spheroids may be more clinically relevant than monolayer cell cultures. Here, we describe methods for multicellular 3D spheroid generation that may be used to provide samples for receptor tyrosine kinase (and other protein) detection. Methods described include the forced-floating poly-HEMA method, the hanging-drop method, and the use of ECM to form multicellular 3D spheroids.