Scaffold-Free, Size-Controlled Three-Dimensional Culture of Rabbit Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Adipose-derived stem cells are capable of self-renewal and differentiation along multiple cell lineages, and have potential applications in a wide range of therapies. ASCs are commonly cultured as monolayers on tissue culture plastic, but there are indications that they may lose their cell-specific properties with time in vitro. There has been a growing interest in culturing adherent cells using three-dimensional techniques based on the understanding that growing cells on plastic surfaces cannot truly recapitulate 3D in vivo conditions. Here we describe a novel method for generating and culturing rabbit ASCs as scaffold-free 3D cell aggregates using micropatterned wells via a forced aggregation technique.