3D Culture Analysis of Cancer Cell Adherence to Ex Vivo Lung Microexplants

Ex vivo 3D culture of human tissue explants addresses many limitations of traditional monolayer cell culture techniques, namely the lack of cellular heterogeneity and absence of 3D intercellular spatial relationships, but presents challenges with regard to repeatability owing to the difficulty of acquiring multiple tissue samples from the same donor. In this study, we used a cryopreserved bank of human lung microexplants, ∼1 mm³ fragments of peripheral lung from donors undergoing lung resection surgery, and a liquid-like solid 3D culture matrix to describe a method for the analysis of non-small-cell lung cancer adhesion to human lung tissue. H226 (squamous cell carcinoma), H441 (lung adenocarcinoma), and H460 (large cell carcinoma) cell lines were cocultured with lung microexplants. Confocal fluorescence microscopy was used to visualize the adherence of each cell line to lung microexplants. Adherent cancer cells were quantified following filtration of nonadherent cells, digestion of cultured microexplants, and flow cytometry. This method was used to evaluate the role of integrins in cancer cell adherence. A statistically significant decrease in the adherence of H460 cells to lung microexplants was observed when anti-integrins were administered to H460 cells before coculture with lung microexplants.