Spheroids offer immense potential in various fields such as drug discovery, personalized and regenerative medicine. Their 3D conformation not only allows extensive molecular signaling among cells and with the extracellular matrix, but also the formation of nutrients and oxygen gradients. Spheroids also regulate drug penetration thanks to the presence of permeability barriers. They thus mimic the complexity of tissues and tumor environment better than traditional two-dimensional cell cultures.
Obtaining consistent spheroid assay outcomes necessitates the capability to pre-select them based on their size as well as the capability to isolate them in different plate formats. Accessible solutions for manipulating and isolating spheroids remain limited. Currently, the industry standard for handling organoids and spheroids involves manual processes that are cumbersome and not very efficient in throughput, hardly reproducible and slow. On the other hand, more complex, specialized equipment may not be readily accessible and is highly expensive.
To overcome these challenges, we have developed a streamlined workflow combining the high-throughput miniaturized spheroid production capabilities of Livedrop's OneFlow microfluidics sorter with the advantageous properties of impedance-based dispensing technology, Dispen3D. This unique workflow stands out as an ideal platform for characterizing and isolating individual spheroids quickly and efficiently.
In addition to being intuitive and compact, Dispen3D is therefore a versatile tool for fast, gentle and traceable spheroid isolation. There is no need for instrument maintenance, or calibration thanks to the use of disposable tips that avoid cross-contamination. Allowing the isolation of cellular aggregates ranging from 90 µm to 200 µm, it will be interesting to explore the use of Dispen3D for the isolation of other 3D cellular models such as organoids and tumoroids.
Here we present a simple and efficient workflow combining Livedrop's sorter OneFlow and Dispen3D large particle dispenser for the isolation of single spheroids in multiwell plates.
