Histocultures and Their Use

Robert M Hoffman, University of California San Diego and AntiCancer Inc., San Diego, California, USA

Published online: October 2010

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0002573.pub2

Histocultures are three-dimensional tissues that are put into growth medium either with a collagen gel support or simply free floating. Histocultures maintain their in vivo-like phenotype in contrast to monolayer cultures. Histocultures have many uses, including culture and sensitivity testing of patient tumour to choose optimal individualised treatment. Clinical trials have demonstrated the clinical utility of the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA) to determine effective treatment for multiple types of cancer. The histoculture of skin to study hair growth and screen drugs that enhance or inhibit hair growth has enabled the discovery of hair follicle-targeting cancer liposomes to deliver genes and other molecules to the hair follicles. The histoculture of lymphoid organs has been developed to study antibody production and effects of viruses on immune cells. Stem cell growth and differentiation are now being studied in histoculture.

Key Concepts:

  • Histocultures are the culture of intact tissues containing multiple cell types.
  • Histocultures retain their in vivo phenotype in contrast to monolayer cultures.
  • Histocultured tumour tissue contains cancer cells and stromal elements interacting with each other in their native structure.
  • Histocultured tumours can be tested for drug sensitivity to design effective individualised therapy for each patient.
  • Histocultured lymphoid tissue can enable the study of antibody production and virus infection in vitro.
  • Histocultured skin enables hair growth in vitro.
  • Histocultured stem cells cancer differentiates in vitro.

Keywords: histology; three-dimensional tissue culture; tumours; chemosensitivity; lymph nodes; immune function; skin; hair growth; stem cells; differentiation

Figure 1. Histoculture of nestin GFP-expressing hair follicle stem cells on Gelfoam®.
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 Further Reading
    Chuu JJ, Liu JM, Tsou MH et al. (2007) Effects of paclitaxel and doxorubicin in histocultures of hepatocelular carcinomas. Journal of Biomedical Science 14: 233–244.
    Flowers JL, Hoffman RM, Driscoll TA et al. (2003) The activity of camptothecin analogues is enhanced in histocultures of human tumors and human tumor xenografts by modulation of extracellular pH. Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology 52: 253–261.
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    Lee SW, Kim YM, Kim MB et al. (2009) Chemosensitivity of uterine cervical cancer demonstrated by the histoculture drug response assay. Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine 219: 277–282.
    Li L, Paus R, Margolis LB and Hoffman RM (1992a) Hair shaft elongation, follicle growth and spontaneous regression in long-term, sponge-gel supported histoculture of human scalp skin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 89: 8764–8768.
    Li L, Paus R, Slominski A and Hoffman RM (1992b) Skin histoculture assay for studying the hair cycle. In vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology 28A: 695–698.
    Olbina G, Miljkovic D, Hoffman RM and Geller J (1998) New sensitive discovery histoculture model for growth-inhibition studies in prostate cancer and BPH. Prostate 37: 126–129.
    Yoshimasu T, Ohta F, Oura S et al. (2009) Histoculture drug response assay for gefitinib in non-small-cell lung cancer. General Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 57: 138–143.
    Yoshimasu T, Oura S, Hirai I et al. (2007) Data acquisition for the histoculture drug response assay in lung cancer. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 133: 303–308.

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Article Title: Histocultures and Their Use
 
How to Cite close
Hoffman, Robert M(Oct 2010) Histocultures and Their Use. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0002573.pub2]