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Regulatory Mechanisms in Spheroidal Aggregates of Normal and Cancerous Cells

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Spheroids in Cancer Research

Part of the book series: Recent Results in Cancer Research ((RECENTCANCER,volume 95))

Abstract

Threedimensional culture systems, pioneered with the development by Moscona (1961) of the technology to culture embryonic cells in reaggregate structures and by Sutherland and his collaborators (Sutherland et al. 1971; Sutherland and Durand 1976) of the methodology to initiate and grow tumor spheroids, have become powerful models for the investigation of problems related to tumor and normal cell biology. The rationale behind the two approaches was the same: by allowing discrete cells in vitro to reconstitute tissue-like structure with optimal cell-to-cell contacts, it was thought possible to recreate a physiological cellular microenvironment and favor in vivo-like growth or development. This postulate was found to be correct. On the one hand, tumor spheroids were indeed found, similarly to in situ tumors, to develop discrete cell populations which differ in their biological properties due to the concentration gradients of metabolites and catabolites existing in these tridimensional structures. On the other hand, normal cells maintained in spheroidal aggregates were shown to be capable of continuing their differentiation/development along normal in vivo pathways and of maitaining differentiated functions. This suggested that both the cell-cell recognition and intercellular adhesion processes involved in the initial aggregation of the cells and the factors controlling the further development of the spheroids were representative of the control mechanisms operating in vivo, including those that are defective in cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherché, L’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 11 Côte du Palais, Québec, G1R 2J6, Canada

    J. Landry & J. P. Freyer

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  1. J. Landry
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  2. J. P. Freyer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Plank-Institut für Systemphysiologie, Rheinlanddamm 201, 4600, Dortmund 1, Germany

    Helmut Acker

  2. Department of Radiobiology, National Defence Research Institut, 901 82, Umea, Sweden

    Jörgen Carlsson

  3. Medical Biophysics Unit, B. C. Cancer Research Center, 601 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1L3, Canada

    Ralph Durand

  4. Division Experimental Therapeutics, University of Rochester, Cancer Center, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY, USA

    Robert M. Sutherland

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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Landry, J., Freyer, J.P. (1984). Regulatory Mechanisms in Spheroidal Aggregates of Normal and Cancerous Cells. In: Acker, H., Carlsson, J., Durand, R., Sutherland, R.M. (eds) Spheroids in Cancer Research. Recent Results in Cancer Research, vol 95. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82340-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82340-4_3

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