Measurement of multicellular behavior and mechanical properties in 3D osteocytic spheroids

抄録

Changes in multicellular behaviors and mechanical properties of three-dimensional (3D) culture models such as organoids are important to understand the mechanisms of the morphogenesis and functions of diverse organs in vivo cellular environment. Our group has developed 3D scaffold-free osteocytic culture models reconstructed by pre-osteoblast cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In response to chemically induced osteogenesis supplements (OS), we investigated the multicellular behaviors of the osteocytic spheroids derived from human MSCs by conducting three experiments; 1) size change measurement, 2) fusion experiment, and 3) collagen embedding experiment of the spheroids. We also established an experimental system to measure the stiffness of the spheroids by a compression test using a glass plate controlled by a micromanipulator under the microscopy. This study will contribute to understanding the multicellular behaviors and measurement of the mechanical properties in the various organoid models.