Morphological and functional differentiation of human thyroid cells in collagen gel culture.

Objective: Cultured human thyroid cells in collagen gel culture were examined on cell morphology and the production of thyroglobulin (Tg), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) which are components of functional differentiation.

Methods: Thyroid cells obtained from normal human thyroid tissues (four cases), follicular adenoma tissues (three cases), papillary carcinoma tissues (three cases), and follicular carcinoma tissue (one case), were cultured in collagen gel. Then these cultured cells were observed on cellular morphology and production of Tg, T3 and T4.

In vitro-in vivo correlation in anticancer drug sensitivity test using AUC-based concentrations and collagen gel droplet-embedded culture.

To improve the ability of an in vitro drug sensitivity test to predict in vivo effects, we applied a drug concentration that was pharmacokinetically equivalent to plasma levels and collagen gel droplet-embedded culture with a high cloning efficiency. We reported that the cell-killing effect of cell cycle phase-nonspecific drugs such as mitomycin C, cisplatin and Adriamycin depends on the area under the drug concentration-time curve (AUC). The plasma AUC values of these drugs were estimated after an injection into nude mice at the maximal tolerated doses (MTD).

[Development of new in vitro chemosensitivity test using collagen gel droplet embedded culture and its clinical usefulness].

We developed a new in vitro assay for chemosensitivity test using collagen gel droplet embedded culture and image analysis. In this in vitro assay, we successfully minimized the cancer cell number required for culture to approximately 3-10 x 10(3) cells for each 30 microliters collagen gel droplet, obtained the sufficient growth of cancer cells using serum-free medium while suppressing the growth of fibroblastic cells, and measured the volume of cancer cells by eliminating the contaminating fibroblastic cells by an image processing technique. Anticancer effects of the in vitro assay showed a very good correlation with those of in vivo nude mouse assay using human cancer cell lines.