TY - CHAP
T1 - Tumorsphere Formation Assay
T2 - A Cancer Stem-Like Cell Characterization in Pediatric Brain Cancer Medulloblastoma
AU - Ray, Sutapa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Cancer is a heterogeneous disease, comprising of a mixture of different cell populations. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), also known as tumor-initiating cells (TICs), are a subpopulation of multipotent cells within the cancer that has self-renewing capability, tumor-initiating ability, multi-differentiation potential, and an inherent capacity for drug and chemoresistance. Sphere-formation assay is commonly used for enrichment and analysis of CSC properties in vitro and is typically used as a metric for testing the viability of tumor cells to anticancer agents. This model is based on the ability of CSCs to grow under ultralow-attachment conditions in serum-free medium supplemented with growth factors. In contrast to the adherent 2D culture of cancer cells, the 3D culture of tumorsphere assay exploits inherent biologic features of CSCs such as anoikis resistance and self-renewal. We describe here the detailed methodology for the generation and propagation of spheres generated from pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma (MB) cells. As signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3) is known to play an important role in maintaining cancer stem cell properties, we accessed the effect of depleting or inhibiting STAT3 on MB-sphere sizes, numbers, and integrity. This may serve as a promising platform for screening potential anti-CSC agents and small-molecule inhibitors.
AB - Cancer is a heterogeneous disease, comprising of a mixture of different cell populations. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), also known as tumor-initiating cells (TICs), are a subpopulation of multipotent cells within the cancer that has self-renewing capability, tumor-initiating ability, multi-differentiation potential, and an inherent capacity for drug and chemoresistance. Sphere-formation assay is commonly used for enrichment and analysis of CSC properties in vitro and is typically used as a metric for testing the viability of tumor cells to anticancer agents. This model is based on the ability of CSCs to grow under ultralow-attachment conditions in serum-free medium supplemented with growth factors. In contrast to the adherent 2D culture of cancer cells, the 3D culture of tumorsphere assay exploits inherent biologic features of CSCs such as anoikis resistance and self-renewal. We describe here the detailed methodology for the generation and propagation of spheres generated from pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma (MB) cells. As signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3) is known to play an important role in maintaining cancer stem cell properties, we accessed the effect of depleting or inhibiting STAT3 on MB-sphere sizes, numbers, and integrity. This may serve as a promising platform for screening potential anti-CSC agents and small-molecule inhibitors.
KW - Cancer stem cells
KW - Self-renewal
KW - Tumor-initiating cells
KW - Tumorspheres
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168062321&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1007/978-1-0716-3373-1_17
DO - 10.1007/978-1-0716-3373-1_17
M3 - Chapter
C2 - 37574488
AN - SCOPUS:85168062321
T3 - Methods in Molecular Biology
SP - 253
EP - 259
BT - Methods in Molecular Biology
PB - Humana Press Inc.
ER -