Fig. 3.

Application of 3D tumor cell spheroids for assessing tumor penetration. (A) Schematic illustration of fabricating 3D tumor cell spheroids with or without scaffolds. (B) Schematic of the morphology of cancer cell spheroids on cryogel matrices. (C) Multicellular spheroids of invasive cancer cells produced in the environment created by human-derived stromal cells. (D) A spheroid formed by cancer cells cultivated on low-adhesion culture dishes and 96-well plate lids. (E) Tumor penetration of ID@M − N, a dual-nanotransformer for size and charge, in MSCs observed by Z-stack CLSM (scale bar: 100 μm) and 3D fluorescence analysis of CLSM images at a depth of 150 μm. (F) CLSM images of optical slices through the centers of SH-SY5Y-labeled MSCs incubated with 3 different combinations for 24 h. MP-1 was FITC-labeled. (Fig. 3A–D were created with BioRender.com. Fig. 3E was reprinted with permission from Ref. [30]. Fig. 3F was reprinted with permission from Ref. [44]. Copyright 2016 Elsevier.).