REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Organoids and Organ-On-A-Chip
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1498141
Bridging the Gap: The Role of 3D Cell Cultures in Mimicking Tumor Microenvironment for Enhanced Drug Testing Accuracy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
- 2Zibo Central Hospital, Shandong, China
- 3University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
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Cell culture is a crucial technology in life science research, particularly in cancer studies. The morphology 14 and biological properties of tumor cells, along with the mechanisms of tumor development, are highly 15 dependentsignificantly influenced by their culture conditions. Anti-tumor drug sensitivity testing is essen-16 tial for cancer treatment, helping to identify effective therapies and reduce patient burdenaiding in effective 17 therapies and reducing patient burden. Currently, 2D cell culture remains the primary method for anti-18 tumor drug sensitivity testing due to its cost-effectivenesslow cost, ease of operation, and high-throughput 19 screening capabilitycapabilities. However, it does not accurately replicatefails to accurately simulate the 20 tumor cell microenvironment. Animal models are important tools for drug development, but they are not 21 suitable for high-throughput screeninghigh-throughput screening is difficult to achieve. Recent advance-22 ments in 3D culture technologies have addressed this limitation, have significantly improved this scenario. 23These technologies can better mimic the tumor microenvironment, accurately reflect tumor biological be-24 havior, gene expression, and signaling pathways. This paper summarizesreviews the current in vitro and in 25 vivo culture models, discusses emergingintroduces popular three-dimensional cell culture technologies, 26 and highlightsfocuses on their ability to effectively simulate the tumor microenvironment and their signif-27 icant have great application potential in drug sensitivity testing.
Keywords: 3D cell culture, Tumor Microenvironment, Organoids, Drug sensitivity test, drug screening
Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Yu, Guo, Tang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yao Tang, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 21201, Maryland, United States
Qian Xu, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.