Development of a three-dimensional microfluidic system for long-term tumor spheroid culture

In this paper, we present a low-cost three-dimensional microfluidic system made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) for tumor spheroid formation and cultivation. Tumor spheroids reaching diameters of up to 300 mu m were cultured in perfusion microchambers providing extremely low shear stress. Spheroids were cultured for 15 days and high viability of the cells was observed within this time. The presented microsystem is a prospective solution for development of microfluidic platforms for anticancer drug screening. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.