Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of three dimensional (3D) and two dimensional (2D) cell culture systems
Items | 2D cell culture | 3D cell culture | Refs. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Disadvantages | Time required for culture formation | Minutes to a few hours | A few hours to a few days | [52] |
Quality of culture | Simple long-term culture Easy to interpret results High performance and reproducibility | More difficult to culture Difficult to interpret results Poor performance and reproducibility | [53] | |
Cost of culture maintenance | Less time consuming Inexpensive Commercially available media and assay materials | More time consuming More expensive Fewer commercially available assay materials | ||
Advantages | In vivo imitation | Cannot mimic the natural tumour mass structure | Can mimic in vivo tissue structures | [55] |
Cell interactions | No cell–cell or cell- extracellular microenvironment interactions No “niches” or in vivo-like microenvironment | Appropriate cell–cell and cell-extracellular microenvironment interactions Microenvironment “niches” are present | ||
CellCharacteristics | Altered morphology from physiological tissue Altered cell division activity Lack of diverse phenotypes and polarization | Preserved morphology Preserved cell division activity Presence of diverse phenotypes and polarization | ||
Access to essential compounds | Limited access to nutrients, oxygen, metabolites, and signalling molecules | Variable access to nutrients, oxygen, metabolites, and signalling molecules | ||
Molecular mechanisms | Alterations in cellular biochemistry Alterations in gene expression, mRNA splicing, and topology | Preserved cellular biochemistry Preserved gene expression, mRNA splicing, and topology | ||
Angiogenesis | Only observational | Could be functional | [65] | |
Mathematical model | Possible | Better geometry and structure–function links | [65] | |